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Violent death has become the order of the day. Nobody is surprised by news of another murder since yester days in Kampala.
Naturally, you might think that it is only the loved ones of the murdered victims who are distressed by these rampant killings. Not exactly.
There is another category of people bitter about the murders; these are the murderers themselves. Yes, Kampala’s killers are very angry about the killings they commit.
Their grievance is over the ridiculously low fee they are paid for every person they kill. An odd protest in the streets of Kampala could be in the offing.
A media house did a study in the underworld last week and reported that the killers are not amused with the peanuts that those who contract them pay. It’s sheer exploitation, in the killers’ bloody opinion.
The going rate for the final hitman is reportedly Ush130,000. That is about Ksh3,500.
This for the killers is unfair - having to kill a person who is worth millions of shillings for a mere pittance yet the killers are skilled fellows.
They have specialised skills in handling different firearms, are experts at man to man combat, use knives like they are part of their bodies, know how to scare the daylights out of the victim’s family over a phone, can shoot accurately with a submachine gun while sitting of a fast-flying motorbike and can convert any object they find near a victim into a deadly weapon, including a broom or bathroom slippers!
But apparently, there is oversupply in the trade of murderers. Worse still for the hitmen of Kampala, the masterminds of the murders are careful that the killer doesn’t even get to know who is ultimately paying his bloody salary.
The final client only knows the big gangster who is paid a big sum of money, and he in turn contracts the final hitmen, without ever knowing even the reason why their victim has to die.
Because of the intricate web of the contracting process, even if the killer is arrested and grilled, the trail does not lead to the buyer of their services.
And after these senseless killings have baffled the police for several years, the final solution might ultimately be offered by the murderous contractors themselves.
If they continue being mean with the money they pay the killers, it might become harder to find hit-men who are ready to risk arrest and conviction over the little sums of money they get for their handiwork.
So we might in the future be hit by a hitmen’s strike. They could stage a slowdown or simply refuse to take on more jobs. Yes, the killers of Kampala might go on strike, unless their employers give them a pay rise.
