Nairobi, Kenya, Mar 19- A section of Kenyans, civil society members and security experts have expressed alarm over the resurgence of political gangs and militias in the country ahead of the August 9 elections.
Speaking Thursday during a virtual meeting hosted by Counter Terrorism Policing Kenya, the participants said that despite efforts by successive governments to crack down on them, these gangs have grown in size and influence in the country.
“The issue of criminal gangs has been around for such a long time in Kenya. We have had successive Presidents banning gangs but still the problem persists. I believe Moi Banned about 18 gangs. Kibaki did the same with about 30 gangs and Uhuru did the same with 90 gangs, but we find that we are still in the same predicament despite the efforts that have been done so as to curb the menace,” said Shanti Tasha, a participant.
Tasha noted that the gangs pose a significant threat to the country’s national security and called for an urgent intervention by the government to address the situation.
They attributed the situation to the high rate of unemployment amongst the Kenyan youth and corruption within security intelligence services.
They pointed out that politicians were taking advantage of the desperation of the youths to recruit them into these gangs, which they said were being used to drive their selfish agenda.
Dominic Pkalya a member from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue said that a study done by the National Crime Research Center in 2018 showed that by that time, gangs had increased from 33 which were banned in 2010 to 326 groups identified by research in 2017.
“So that alone shows that the gangs increased by almost 1000%, in seven years, meaning that by now probably we have more gangs than that,” he said.
He added that another study by the Global Initiative against Transnational organized Crimes showed that gangs, especially in Nairobi and Mombasa, are running illicit activities funded by politicians and will be used to frustrate or to cause violence during the elections.
Pkalya pointed out that the criminal gangs in the country were now adopting new identities to evade justice claiming that there could be more than 400 gangs currently in existence.
Martha Njiiri, the head of strategic communication at the IGAD Centre of Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism singled out Murang’a where she said that the county is now witnessing the emergence of female gangs ahead of the elections.
“We are also seeing emerging patterns of where it is no longer young men that are involved in these gangs, but we are also having young ladies who are getting into these gangs and are actually gaining growth in the county,” she said.
Nehemiah Kipserem a youth leader from Uasin Gishu County said the upcoming polls in August provides a breeding ground for political gangs and militias to thrive.
Kipserem pointed out that lack of transparency within the security agencies has made it difficult to address the situation.
“The intelligence pipeline in the Republic of Kenya has been infiltrated and also corruption has really penetrated. Okay, I may call this a mere allegation, but if I were wrong, we couldn’t be having such cases as today, because that’s the role of intelligence of the Republic of Kenya. They should be able to scrutinize and any misconception should be dealt with immediate effect,” he said.
He added that the intelligence sector should be on top of things in regards to the activities of the existing organizations or groups in the country.
Franklin Waruhiu, another participant said politicians mostly use political gangs to force themselves into power and protect their resources.
“Mostly you’ll find politicians mobilizing youths into political gangs just because they want to get power,”
He went on to say that some politicians sometimes use these gangs to eliminate their opponents noting that during the 2013 and 2017 elections, some bloggers and rivals went missing which he attributed to the hunger for power.
The participants recommended the changing of policies guiding the operations of different government agencies to allow them conduct their mandate independently.
They also called for the review of the coverage of the political gangs by the media and beefing up of security in some parts of the country to prevent the infiltration of criminal gangs.
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