Thin line separates organised crime, violence

By mathew K Iteere

In Kenya, organised crime has been defined as a non-ideological enterprise involving a number of persons in close social interaction, organised on a hierarchical basis, for the purpose of securing profit and power by engaging in illegal and legal activities.

Criminal gangs have also been defined as recognisable, monopolistic, self-perpetuating, hierarchical organisation willing to use violence and the corruption of public officials to engage in both traditional vice-related activities and complex criminal enterprises. It ensures its organisational longevity through ritualistic practices, rules and regulations, organisational tithing, and investment in legitimate businesses.

The Prevention of Organised Crime Bill, 2010 defines "organised criminal group" as a structured group of three or more persons, existing for a period of time and acting in concert with the aim of committing one or more serious crimes in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit or other advantage for the organised criminal group or any of the members of organised criminal group.

Looking at situations elsewhere (Brazil, Mexico, Jamaica etc), it might not be accurate to say we have organised criminal gangs in Kenya. We don’t really have relatively permanent well structured criminal outfits here. Rather, we have created an ideal situation for organised criminal gangs to germinate and thrive.

First there is a lot of social disorganisation. In the context of gang activity, the social disorganisation theory applies in a society which is either stratified or gradually stratifying into classes. Think about Muthaiga/Mathare, Loresho/Kangemi and Lang’ata/Kibera.

In the rural areas, the situation is observably replicated where there are one or two villagers who can afford three meals a day, quality medical attention and good education for their children while the rest see these things in their dreams.

This is a situation where a significant population is experiencing biting poverty while witnessing wealth, which is virtually impossible for them to attain through conventional means, the feeling that they will never access social opportunities using legitimate means.

This situation is complicated when they cannot trust the authorities because they see them as deceivers and a barrier between them and the good life.

Prior to Independence, it was understood that good life was for the mzungu. However, since independence, our culture has defined success and failure, and those who have made money have been declared successful by society.

Unfortunately, the same society knows how the money has been made and, therefore, anybody interrogating how one has succeeded must discover one thing — we have a deeply flawed value system.

In criminology, this is deviance. Deviance depends on society’s definition of success and the desires of individuals to achieve success through socially-defined avenues. Criminality arises when expectation of achieving success by legitimate means cannot be fulfilled.

The emerging organised crime syndrome has heavily capitalised on activities like kidnapping and extortion of those who are perceived as the ‘haves’ by the ‘have-nots’. We are fast headed towards a fully blown culture of deviance.

Vigilante groups

Through the years, we have progressively produced a landscape with a good percentage detesting the idea of governmental authority, whether it is embedded in law or not. That explains why a policeman is beaten while on duty and virtually every driver behaves as if there is no Highway Code. In business, one can sell lethal poison in the name of alcoholic beverage.

Under these circumstances, coalescing together for a criminal activity becomes an option. Naturally, the youth take the lead in this. In some cases, this syndrome has taken the shape of vigilante groups. Without any general or specific commitment to the rule of law, the groups end up turning to violence as a solution to every issue.

Of greater concern is that the society seems to implicitly support this violence and actively take part in covering up the perpetrators.

Although we have not witnessed the level of power, fabulous wealth and chains of conspiratorial activities in other jurisdictions, Mungiki and SLDF are examples of potential fully-fledged criminal gangs if we relax our vigilance. More ominously, there is a clear nexus between organised criminal groups, illicit drugs and trafficking in small arms.

We have also witnessed incidents where politicians actively form gangs of youths for political ends. Such politicians go for youth who will not stop at anything to put the populace under their paymaster’s influence. Once the political season is over, they turn to other criminal activities. Youth with no reasonable expectation of meeting their goals in life are a social time bomb.

At the end, there is a limit to which society has been able to rely on voluntary and community based observation of the rule of law. In every developed or fast developing country I have visited, police services are given a key priority.

That is why I advocate the investing heavily for the country to yield a professional police service. The terms and conditions of service for police and judicial officers must consider that they are permanently exposed to the corrupt.

Other opportunities for managing criminality include a dynamic regime of laws, which is alive and responsive to the needs of the society it is intended to govern.

—This is abridged version of a presentation by Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere to a seminar on organised criminal gangs and violence, hosted by the criminal justice sector.