The brutal killing of two pretty gangsters in one week has brought to the fore the trap that many young impressionable women fall into when they are lured into the life of crime.
The allure of quick money, affirmation from society as well as protection from sexual molestation are leading girls barely out of their teens in some of Nairobi’s most deprived estates into a life of crime, and death.
Girls as young as 14 years old, some still living with their parents, are joining gangs in droves. As a result, the Warembo Sacco, an offshoot of the dreaded Gaza Gang, has become an exclusive enclave for these female thugs who have presided over violent crimes in large parts of Eastlands.
Fashionable crime
On May 21, Claire Njoki, 18, was laid to rest in Kambirwa village in Murang’a. The teenager had been shot dead by police officers a week earlier after allegedly defying orders to surrender. Police records show that detectives had been trailing her and her accomplices for some time, and that she was part of a four-person gang on whose trail undercover police officers known as ‘Rhinos’ from Kayole had been.The police say they were shot in Saika after they refused to surrender.
Njoki’s funeral was a hurried affair. Plain clothes police officers were on the look out for anyone who might offer fresh leads. Her shooting heralded an all-out war on those associated with her and the gang she belonged to.
Barely a week after Njoki -- who the media referred to as Nairobi’s Prettiest Thug -- was buried, her best friend Marsha Minaj was also shot dead by the police in her house in Kayole’s Migingo area.
Little was known about Marsha before she was killed. Residents refused to speak to authorities and outsiders. For them, silence can be the difference between making it through another day or being the subject of discussion at a funeral committee. Neighbours and residents of Migingo said speaking might be perceived as knowing too many secrets. The result of which will be certain death.
However, numerous interviews revealed that Marsha, a former student at Kayole’s Imara Primary School, sat her KCPE in 2012. She was a new tenant in the single-room where she was gunned down together with a yet-to-be identified man. Witnesses the police ordered her and her guest to get out of the house and when they dilly-dallied, they were shot through the window. A Beretta pistol, whose serial number was obliterated, was found on her.
But what drives these girls into the dare devil world of crime?
Interviews with those still in gangs and others who managed to escape life in crime reveal that sometimes, gangs give protection to beautiful and vulnerable young women. Some of them see gangs as the only places where they will be safe from sexual violence and unwanted attention.
Belonging to a gang means they are off limits and only gang members can fraternise with them. Those who approach them without knowledge of their gang affiliations are often beaten up. Experts say it was just a matter of time before these girls evolve into actively participating in gang activities.
“In the slum areas where gangs have been in control for decades, girls are victims of rape and other violations,” says James Ndung’u, a security expert. “Those who have grown up in this system have learned that in order to be safe, they need to attach themselves to criminals. With time, they become accomplices who hide things like guns and bullets, then begin to run illegal errands before they become gangsters themselves.”
Ndung’u says the gangs look fashionable to teenagers. “And because of the seemingly easy money that gangsters have, girls get attracted to them.”
On December 8, 2014, a 14-year–old-girl stabbed a man and killed him in Kayole after he refused to part with his mobile phone and money. Then Kayole OCPD Samuel Mukindia described the incident as a “normal robbery”.
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In June 2015, 60 members of Gaza, including a dozen girls, surrendered at a ceremony held Njiru where this writer was present. One Roselyn Akinyi, who spoke on their behalf, said they had no option other than to join the gang. “When we finished Form Four we had nothing to do,” she said.
Each of those who surrendered was given Sh60,000 by Kasarani MP John Njoroge. It now appears this was not a deterrent enough because apart from Gaza, there is now an all-girl offshoot Gaza, going by the name Warembo Sacco.
Like Gaza, its members are known to wear garish silver jewelry, heavy makeup and prefer open shoes with many laces. Almost all of them are in their teens and terrorise the areas where their members come from — Kayole, Dandora, Saika, Donhoolm and Umoja.
What investigations?
Police may be beginning to realise that they had largely ignored a tell-tale sign of an incoming social upheaval — the emergence of female gangsters.
However, the comfort teenage girls find in crime and the protection they seek in the arms of gangsters is short-lived. They soon become sitting ducks for the police.
Those who spoke to Sunday Standard admitted that life soon becomes lonely. And it is a loneliness that stalks them even in death.
Local authorities have outlawed any form of meeting to plan the burial of Marsha at her house, which is still being treated as a crime scene.
On Facebook, threads of eulogies of gangsters barely out of their teens fill the walls of other gang members and their friends. Many of those who have publicly eulogised their friends have also been killed by the police.
Just a day after Njoki was killed, another young female gangster called out a police officer she claimed was behind the killing of her friend.
“You are stupid and I will be happy when you die a shameful death. I am not scared of you and even if you search for me you will never find me. I won’t waste time. I have enough money and a black belt,” said the female gangster known by her moniker Bensia Bensheeron wrote on Facebook.
All indications are that Marsha’s burial will be similar to that of her best friend. No public showing of remorse. No eulogies. And the possibility of arresting anyone who might have been in the cross-hairs of the police.
Those who have been associated with criminals are skeptical about police investigations.
“People say they were criminals but I had never seen them steal, so how would I have known? Here people get killed everyday for various reasons, so you can’t know who is saying the truth and who is lying,” Shamin Sheilla said.
In October last year, police in Kibera tracked down Shamin’s boyfriend Benard Otieno alias Bobo and a friend, Hillary Otieno alias Chinjo, to a house at Kambi Muru village in the middle of the night. They were dragged out, handcuffed and shot several times.
Shamin insists her boyfriend was not a criminal.
But what is baffling is that it was not the first time her boyfriend had been gunned down by the police for being a suspected criminal.
In 2010, the father of her child met a similar fate. “All I know is they were footballers at Uweza club,” she says.