Saturday, 3rd December 2011
By JOE KIARIE and KENFREY KIBERENGESince the start of ‘Operation Linda Nchi’ in Somalia, Kenyans have been stunned by chilling accounts of how the Al Shabaab are terrorising their own home villages.
But back here in Kenya, there are areas where local gangs terrorise relatives, neighbours and their own colleagues with impunity.
Yet despite watching family members hacked to death, having friends maimed, or themselves suffering injuries during burglaries, the victims remain too horrified to report or openly speak about the attacks and the perpetrators.
Doing so could attract a reprisal attack with fatal consequences. The only way out for the affluent in these areas is to abandon their ancestral homes and seek a fresh start elsewhere.
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| Residents pooled resources to build this police post but six months later, police officers are yet to take up office. [PICTURES: Evans Habil/Standard] |
Gangster’s paradiseBut it is only after we talk to residents of the adjacent Mutaro, ACK and Gituamba villages that we realise we are in the heart of a gangsters’ paradise. Interestingly, we learn the crime is embedded within an area measuring just about one kilometre squared, with crimes rarely reported in the neighbouring villages.
Residents here have to be indoors by 7pm and leave their homes after 6am to avoid being waylaid. Yet if one is lucky enough to be spared a daytime housebreak, the homes guarantee no safety at night since owning basic electronic goods such as mobile phone, a radio, an iron box or a television set is enough to attract a gang to your bedroom. And rarely will the gang end its mission without inflicting physical injuries.
Despite being well known, the gangs even have the audacity to attack their own mothers, sisters, aunties and grannies during merry-go-round meetings, order them to lie down and frisk them for all the cash in broad daylight.
These crimes appear normal to the residents and are hardly reported beyond Kanunga’s boundaries. But the area has equally recorded chilling murders that have often attracted media attention. In the past two months for instance, thugs have claimed three lives.
In September, a kindergarten pupil, 5, at the local Mary Immaculate Catholic School, was defiled and her body dumped in a maize plantation.
Catholic priest David Kimani and local councillor James Gicheru were the only ones bold enough to openly castigate the attack. A week later, a woman who had rented a house in the area, was carjacked and her body later found in Githunguri. She was carjacked about 100 metres away from where the minor was murdered. On the eve of Mashujaa Day, a local businessman was shot dead by armed thugs. No sooner had Michael Ndung’u, a matatu operator, arrived home and entered his father’s house than four men armed with AK-47 rifles followed him. They assaulted and injured Ndungu’s parents and brother before shooting him and stealing more than Sh20,000 and five mobile phones.
Passive residentsThe attacks were so alarming that the previously passive residents demonstrated to Ndumberi town where they disrupted Mashujaa Day celebrations, led by then Kiambu DC Albert Kimanthi. Police had to shoot in the air to disperse them.
But that counted for nothing as robberies continue to be reported in Kanunga almost on a daily basis.
One native, who has been spearheading security restoration in the area, says that so pervasive is the crime in the area that residents are lost for words in proposing solutions.
"In Kanunga, anything in your home, including a spoon or a mobile phone charger, is valuable to someone. The criminals are now targeting dairy cows and pigs, which they slaughter and sell. You cannot afford to close an eye when it rains heavily at night since that is the time multiple raids usually are reported," he says, insisting on anonymity for security reasons.
Local young men say they have been held hostage in their own homes.
"If you are educated, it is a nightmare living here. For us, we cannot watch even football in local entertainment joints or even take beer. You will be waylaid on your way back and robbed of cash, even if it is Sh10. A few young men have even been attacked and sodomised in the recent past. Apparently, the criminals are childhood friends we went to school and played games with," says a youth, who also seeks anonymity.
"We usually spend free time at home except when we have issues to attend to outside Kanunga. And if you are late out there, you can hardly get a taxi to drop to you here. You also cannot freely walk in the vicinity a few hundred metres away from home even during the day since you will be attacked. This is slavery and I will certainly move away from my ancestral home once I get a stable job," says another.
Household goodsWithin just two hours of our visit, the extent of crime in Kanunga was so clear, with almost everyone we encountered having a brush with thugs to narrate.
At some point, we were led to one man who lost household goods during a night break-in last week standing outside his home. Before he could even recount his story, our guide beckoned two young men who were passing by. One instantly showed us the scars from cuts inflicted by robbers on his head during one of the many attacks. The other explained he couldn’t recall the last time he possessed a phone. Before long, we encountered a man on crutches. Thugs injured him during the fourth raid on his home this year.
The situation is even worse for the working elite, who are more vulnerable to attacks because of their worth. While most of them live outside the area, they have joined hands with some elite residents and formed a group named Club 300, which discusses and propose projects aimed to boost local development, particularly security.
"It is shocking that even if you have money, you can barely invest anything here. Most people now prefer to buy land elsewhere and settle. They also prefer to do business outside Kanunga due to insecurity," says a businessman, who now resides in Kiambu town.
For those who have gambled and invested locally, all they can now do is sit back and watch as valuable assets go to waste. A few metres away from the local chief’s camp rests a vacant four-storey residential flat.
The building has been vacant for the past one year after thugs attacked tenants in all the units and robbed them of all household goods. And while the value of land appreciates in neighbouring areas such as Turitu and Ngegu, land value in Kanunga has depreciated, with residents saying they rarely have someone inquiring, leave alone buying land in the area.
According to one of the residents, the situation has been worsened by the fact that even when the criminals are arrested, they are rarely charged in court since the victims, particularly if they are relatives of the culprits, usually drop the cases or witnesses shy off due to fear of revenge attacks.
The state of affairs is said to have taken a rich-vs-poor dimension. With many culprits believed to be from poor families, their relatives have always opposed any attempts to have them jailed, claiming it is a conspiracy by the wealthy to persecute paupers using money.
Why Kanunga offers safe haven for gangsResidents of Kanunga village, Kiambu, have attributed the high crime rate in the area to laxity by law enforcement officials.
But some blame the situation on illiteracy, pointing out the village does not have even a single secondary school.
Residents who spoke to The Standard on Saturday accused local chief Jane Gichuhi of ineptitude, saying her laxity was giving criminals an edge.
The residents, who did not want to be named for fear of reprisal attacks, claimed many had been attacked near the chief’s AP camp.
Gichuhi, they claim, enjoys protection from a prominent Kiambu politician.
"It is shocking that when we are attacked, police from Kiambu Police Station, which is about five kilometres away, respond to our distress calls before the AP officers who are stone-throw away," said a resident.
They claim that due to bad blood between the chief and affected residents, the administrator was not keen on boosting security.
But Gichuhi dismissed the claims. "There are stories that have been running concerning Kanunga and we are very bitter. If there was a way we would go to court..." she said on the telephone.
She challenged residents to produce evidence to the effect that she was a stumbling block to security in the area.
"You should tell them to substantiate their claims and if it is proven, we should be taken to court," said Gichuhi, referring The Standard on Saturday to the DC’s office for further statements.
In a clear reflection of the complex situation, a police post sponsored and built by residents to boost security in the area is still not functional, six months after it was completed.
Kiambu OCPD Samuel Mukindia defended the law enforcement agencies, saying crime levels were not as high as depicted in the media.
"I am not aware of any resident who has moved out because of insecurity. The whole of last month, there was no incident," he said.
Mukindia singled out failure by the police to deploy officers at the Kanunga Police Post as the root of the controversy and accused residents of attempting to profiteer from the police.
"They wanted the police to be paying rent on annual basis but I told them we are not ready to lease any property. If it is freehold, I’ll send police there," he said.
Jude Jomo, a local businessman and politician, attributes the high crime rate to illiteracy and unemployment.
"We have a major problem here since most youths are Standard Eight drop-outs because there are no secondary schools around. The only high schools in the area are Kanunga High School and Senior Chief Koinange, both of which are provincial schools that predominantly admit outsiders. We also do not have a single vocational training centre," Jomo says.
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