Who will save Kenyans from guns and grenades?

By KIPCHUMBA SOME

NAIROBI, KENYA: In July this year, a 39-year-old Japanese contractor, Saturu Ogawa, was shot dead in a botched robbery in Port Reitz area at Changamwe, Mombasa County.

On November 19, five armed gangsters hijacked a security van and shot dead a security guard before stealing Sh2 million in the same County.

On November 1, two gangsters armed with an AK47 rifle were shot dead in a botched robbery near Nyali Cinemax. Early this year armed gunmen tried to force their way into Nyali Golf Club.  On Thursday two British tourists escaped unhurt when an unknown man threw a grenade onto a van they were traveling in as it approached Likoni from Diani in Kwale.

These incidents are just part of worrying statistics that not only illustrate the run-away state of insecurity at the Coast region but also mirrors the high levels of criminal activities in other parts of the country.

From Mombasa to Mandera, Marsabit, West Pokot, Turkana Busia, Kisumu, Bungoma and Nairobi counties, crime is fast becoming a way of life to a section of Kenyans.   At the Coast, especially in Mombasa, what is increasingly looking like religious extremism is taking root among the youth as evidenced by hostile takeovers of mosques by radical elements.

Police investigations point an accusing finger at some influential religious, political and business leaders for this worrying development that threatens to polarise Kenyans there along religious lines.

In what has now become a rather familiar routine, the police are yet to arrest any of these high-placed masterminds despite the usual tough talk act.

        ‘Normal crimes’

Besides this, daylight robberies and carjacking — “normal crimes” in police parlance — seem to be the order of the day. This will most certainly hurt business in the region that heavily depends on tourism.

The Standard on Sunday has since established that these constant raids on isolated police booths in Kisauni have forced police authorities to shut down many of these satellite stations.

The move speaks much about the alarming level of insecurity there. However, it is callous and injudicious for the police to leave the local population helpless and at the mercy of criminals.

Mandera and Marsabit counties on the other hand are in the grip of escalating clan wars brought about by perceptions of political marginalisation following the outcome of the March 4 general election.

Certain clans and tribes in the two counties feel marginalised from the political affairs of their respective counties after their candidates failed to win certain “high” offices in the polls. These conflicts have been exacerbated by conflicts over pasture land by the warring communities, which have served to widen and prolong the conflict.

For several months now, conflict over pasture in a number of villages in the border between Turkana and West Pokot counties have fled the country with sad, gory tales of death and suffering.

The fighting has brought services at the Turkwel dispensary to a halt as medics fled fearing for their lives. The dispensary serves close to 4,700 people from both counties.

“We could hear the deafening sound of gunshots every morning and one day a grenade exploded a few meters from the dispensary and we had to suspend services at least for a while until calm returns,” said an officer at the facility who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Cattle rustlers have wrought much suffering in Nyakach, Kisumu County as businessmen in the region and the neighbouring Kericho County cash in on the crime.

The gruesome murder of the elderly parents of the local MP Aduma Owour is suspected to be in retaliation to his stand on the crime. No one has been arrested in relation to the murders.

Providing security for all of its citizens is a basic function of every government and the failure by Jubilee government to restore sanity in these areas is a blot on its record.