State must break mafia-like cartels before they ruin Kenya

Chief Justice Willy Mutunga, a conscientious man who dishonest Kenyan politicians have tried in vain to besmirch, recently told us that Kenya is in the grip of a mafia-like cartel. Now, if you have no idea what it is like to live under the spell of a cartel, I have old news for you. Many years ago when we were growing up, there was a gang of one man called Kimani. Kimani was a towering hulk with an aquiline nose and who walked with hands outstretched, as if he was always itching to hit someone.

Kimani reigned terror in the whole area called Runyenjes in Embu, but his ill reputation extended far behind Kiang’ombe hills in Ukambani and beyond Embu town towards central Kenya.