Gangland: Signs that gangs are running fearless show

Unrecognizable person wearing a hood. (Courtesy/iStock)

There is a resurgence of criminal gangs in the country, a new study by National Crime Research Centre shows.

The research, carried in 11 counties, established that 82.3 per cent of Kenyans felt criminal gangs are active in the country.

Key indicators being of the gangland nature of the country include reports of gang related crime, rise in gang-related violence, intimidation or threats against local community members, expansion of criminal gang influence in youth groups, and witness accounts of criminal gang activities at odd hours.

Other indicators include increased visibility of criminal gang activities in public spaces, rising fear or reluctance among local community members to report crimes, spread of criminal gang activities to previously unaffected areas, and increased recruitment of vulnerable individuals into criminal gangs.

Visibility of criminal gang activities as an indicator of the extent of proliferation of criminal gangs was rated at 87.6 per cent with over 76 per cent of the sample respondents in each of the 11 survey counties confirming the same.

Criminal gangs in the localities were also reported by majority, at 83.6 per cent of the sample respondents, being widespread in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kilifi, Nakuru, Bungoma, Kwale, Kiambu, Machakos, Kisumu, Busia and Garissa.

Proliferation was highest in Kisumu at 89.3 per cent followed by Busia (88.7 per cent) and Bungoma at 88.4 per cent in the study titled The Proliferation and Resilience of Criminal Gangs in Kenya.

The study, conducted between November and December 2024, comes out at a time criminal gangs are posing serious security challenges in the Coast region where Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen held a series of meetings last week.

In the survey, proliferation of gangs in Mombasa stood at 83.4 per cent followed by Kilifi at 78.2 per cent and Kwale at 71.1 per cent. Other counties sampled were Garissa 88.2 per cent, Nairobi 88.1 per cent while in Nakuru it was 84.4 per cent.

The findings pointed to the deep entrenchment of gangs in local communities, bringing out regional variation in gang proliferation and expansion while exposing the adaptability and resilience of gangs in the face of concerted efforts to suppress them.

Persistence of gangs was linked to peer pressure and influence, vulnerabilities associated with high unemployment and poverty, availability of illegal drugs, broken or poor social and/or family support systems, inadequate formal education among youth, political exploitation, and community cultural and social tolerance of criminal gangs.

Other factors include underdevelopment and marginalisation and corruption among rogue government officials.