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The cult like Gaza gang and how it terrorises Nairobi residents

Another was stabbed and nearly lost his life but despite police assurance that he will be protected, he refused to testify in court/JOSEPH MURAYA

– WORRIED VICTIMS –

There are tens of victims, some of whom have been stabbed, robbed and even raped, but the majority do not make a report and if they do, they are not willing to testify in court.

Most of the victims fear victimisation and have resigned to their fate.

One of the victims is Jane Njoki, who despite knowing the person who broke into her house and stole all the electronics, has decided to let it go.

“I don’t want to be killed,” she told Capital FM News on Monday. “I will be profiled as a snitch. Police hawatakuwa na wewe kila wakati (the police will not be with you all the time).”

Another was stabbed and nearly lost his life but despite police assurance that he will be protected, he refused to testify in court.

The suspect in the case is still in custody after he failed to raise cash bail.

– SUPER POWER GANG –

In Eastleigh, another gang is emerging, though it doesn’t have any operational structures as established by Capital FM News.

They operate in crowded streets of the populous estate armed with knives.

Those who spoke to Capital FM News from the area says the gang, just like Gaza in Kayole, draws its membership from jobless youths some of whom have been deported from Europe.

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They have no ideology other than a lavish life financed from their plunder.

Largely, according to locals and police, their money is used to buy drugs and on women.

“They used to rob us while going to the mosque early in the morning and late in the evening. I support the good work police are doing, that is justice for us,” Hussein Aden a resident of Eastleigh said.

“They do not care about your safety provided you give them money to sustain their lifestyle.”

– EXECUTE OR OBSERVE HUMAN RIGHTS –

Debate has risen over whether these criminal gangs should be executed or arrested and taken to court, as is enshrined in the Constitution.

But does the policy of innocent until proven guilty work?

Nairobi Police boss Japheth Koome told Capital FM News that he, “will be ruthless with them. Tell them that I will not watch them kill my officers. We will be ruthless on armed thugs killing Kenyans.”

His sentiments are supported by many other Kenyans like lawyer Donald Kipkorir, who says that, “when one decides to be a terrorist, by joining Al Shabaab or being a cattle rustler or a gangster, he operates outside of the law and cannot seek refuge in the law.”

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“Justified and targeted killings of terrorists is underpinned in sound law. The doctrine of necessitas facit licitum quod alias non est licitum basically indicates the necessity of making lawful that otherwise would have been unlawful. It is why we have pre-emptive strikes. It is why we have just wars (jus ad bellum). Israel, a great democracy is a practitioner of pre-emptive and targeted killings.”

The lawyer added that “those wanting us to read the Bill of Rights to terrorists, gangsters and cattle rustlers, need to speak to the parents and friends of Westgate and Garissa University attacks, survivors of robbery and rape and people who have been left destitute and orphans by cattle rustling”

But Mombasa Senator Hassan Omar says nothing justifies extra-judicial killings.

“I shall not fight crime with official crime. A travesty on one of us is a travesty on all of us. Though you and I are not them, the criminals. We stand on a higher calling and pedestal of duty and responsibility. It is the law that they offend with callous brutality that we seek to uphold with compassion, values and steadfastness. As a Kenyan people, we are not them, no matter how desperate the situation appears or is made to appear,” the legislator said.

“And yes I have been carjacked and robbed, mugged on the streets of Nairobi, lost valuables and people close and known to me through crime. I have felt the anger and pain and desired to shoot dead all criminals, but I am not them.”

“Angry as we might be as a nation, desperate and helpless as we might seem, our values and the Constitution remains strong and binding. I believe in a peaceful and secure Kenya that rests firmly on the pillars of the Constitution. Angry and in pain, I am not desperate.”

It remains the work of police to crackdown on the menace which continues by addressing the underlying issues according to the law.

According to police statistics, there are more than 30 organised criminal gangs in Nairobi.

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