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***Understanding the existing conflict trends of gangs in

Western Kenya; their contribution to insecurity***

Discussion paper: series No. 02 Ottichilo Edwin Adoga

Email: adogaedu@gmail.com (c) 2013

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Introduction

Gangs are increasingly becoming a common phenomenon all around the world especially exemplified in

countries where inequality is highly manifest and most probably where the rule of law is perceived wide open to manipulative politicos and consequently frail in administrating justice and equality to her citizenry. Under the purview of organized crimes, gangs have come of age to become critical actors in influencing security pri-orities within countries because of their criminal nature, traits and ability to sustain themselves through unlaw-ful mannerisms. According to the prevention of crimes Act 2010, an organized criminal group is 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, financial or other material benefit for the advantage for the criminal group or any of the members of the group. Generally, it‟s seemingly inevitable to find no gangs in any part of the world, let alone in Africa because of the growing disparity in socio-economic and political affairs, where the poor become poorer while the rich be-come richer with little room for trade off. To begin with, we can contextualize a gang generally as a group of associating individuals with a form of leadership and internal organization, identifying with or claiming control over territory in a community, and engaging either individually or collectively in violent or other forms of illegal behaviour (i). Gang members typically prove their loyalty by committing acts such as violence with no inten-tion of gaining certain acquisitions but simply to send signals of terror. They thrive in areas where they feel “protected” or where security gaps exists (ii). Obvious threat to peace within the horn of Africa cannot only be confined to; infightings between mutineers and the government, nor can it revolve around warring ethnic communities fighting over scarcity of resources, power and politics. Of course, this is not to preclude that the ongoing debates over the need to continue pur-suing sound security solutions against regional terrorist groups like Al shabaab-who champion for indoctri-nated perspectives of law and order-, should stop, no! Concerted efforts must continue. My point nonetheless is that we should not negate or liquidate any would be steadfastness by non state actors and state actors to strategically and logically pursue both short term and long term solution to the increasing role of organized gangs in the realm of peace and security.

Over the past two decades, gangs have managed to successfully dent the laws of the country and subse-quently creating pouches of impunity and lawlessness enough for them to thrive. Their ingenuity to disrupt peace and rein terror among local residents as a means to seeking control, obedience and loyalty is far in-comparable to any other organized crimes if statistics of their aftermath is anything to go by. The obnoxious ongoing attacks for instance in villages in Busia, Webuye and Bungoma have so far left nine people dead and more than 135 people injured (iii) let alone there being a modicum of reason to explain their execution of such attacks.

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Thriving of gangs in Western Kenya Western Kenya which consists of the former western province (Bungoma, Kakamega, Busia, Vihiga, and Trans Nzoia counties) and Nyanza provinces (Kisumu, Siaya, Homabay, Nyamira, Migori and Kisii counties) has in several occasions found itself in a number of insecurity traps. Whereas comparably in urban areas of Kisumu and Kisii counties, gangs resides and operate in slums where inequality and poverty is rampant. It‟s pretty different in the rural settings of Bungoma, Busia, Migori, Kisii and Nyamira counties where vigilantes alias “loose gangs” are more visible with amorphous structures of command. Although different in nature and mission, both vigilantes and organized gangs are essentially brought to life due to the failure by the govern-ment to provide essential services like security, employment, rule of law and equitable delivery of public ser-vices. Organized Gangs and vigilantes “loose gangs” have in the past decade increased in numbers in the western Kenya region. Majority of them have been blacklisted by the government intelligence arm for having severally and notoriously disregarded the rule of law. Although, organized gangs may appear dangerous and visible, members have the ability to transform into loose gangs or vigilante formations to avert any security compro-mise. Due to the terror caused by the gangs, the desperation by the locals for security as a quick measure, usually with time, lead to the birth of counter vigilante or gangs for protection purposes. Majority of these counter vigilante/gangs at their infantile state receive overwhelming support from the local communities but end up being uncontainable force with thirst for shear criminality. The reason why the countering gangs in their juvenile stage receive massive support is because they provide such critical security (watchmen) ser-vices for their communities against perceived external threats after the failure or unwillingness by the state to do so (iv).

Some of the conspicuous loose and organized gangs which reside in western Kenya include: the sungusungu from Kisii, chinkororo which operates in Borabu and Gucha districts, amachuma which has a huge network allowing it to operate within the entire Kisii and Nyamira counties, Saboat Land Defense Forces (SLDF) which operates in Bungoma County, American Marine and china squad (v) which operates in Kisumu County…the list is endless. Most of these gangs‟ structural complexities differ from one to the other and are hugely in-formed by the areas where they reside and the issues that spiral them up. Their profound and passionate in-volvement in criminal activities design gangs towards becoming the new wave of organized crimes, carrying out brutal persecutions, extortion, embezzlement, illegal business ventures, bribery and the list is endless. For instance, the primacy of chinkororo gang (an organized gang) is documented as to protect the abagusii families while engaging in acts of cattle rustling where necessary to compensate those whose livestock is sto-len by their rivals-the Kalenjin community in Sotik (vi).

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The American Marine and the china squad both gangs operating in Kisumu and which enjoy enormous air time after the disintegration and successful reformation of the Baghdad Boys, have lately been in the public causing all kinds of chaos. What meets the eye is that they are more less street extortion gangs but the truth is that they readily change their nature and scope into highly organized gangs depending with the prevailing interests and needs. Apart from ensuring that their day to day extortion and other illegal business activities runs non-disruptively, they have in moment‟s notice been able in the past to provide adhoc personal security to politicians during the electioneering period, recklessly deciding politicians that are welcomed and unwel-comed in Kisumu County. With great ease, they have in several occasions turned Kisumu town into a battle and killing zone where poli-ticians have secretly and openly used their services to keep their image relevant and consequently scare away their political rivals (vii). Due to the fact that gangs have structures and therefore easy to cajole royal-ists, they have received soft landing from their “political protectors” and “accomplices” for shear purposes of strengthening their client-patronage system. Gangs differ in membership size, shape, scope of interest and management wise. Despite the existing indi-cators that can be used to identify a group as an organized gang or loose gang, it is a uniquely hard to dis-tinctively monitor and pin any of these groups as permanent actors with permanent roles. Firstly is that, some of these gangs tend to disappear and reappear from time to time while others camouflages into vigilante and back. Even within the gang spectrum, there are some that are street wise, loose, while others are well organ-ized criminal gangs attractive to willing “political and businessmen bidders”. In western Kenya, it is a fact that the existing gangs are either loose gangs or well organized criminal gangs some of which wear the street hat when certain occasions provide for them to do so. Few gangs in western Kenya have hierarchical structures almost as much as the structures used by terrorist groups or business companies, while most of them operate informally with leadership falling to whoever takes control. For in-stance, the china squad has a spiritual leader who gives strategic directions although periodic leadership wrangles within the ruling echelon has been reported as a big factor that threatens the compactness of the gang. An individual's age, physical structure, ability to fight, willingness to use violence, and arrest record are often principal factors in determining where an individual stands in the gang hierarchy. The leaders are al-ways surrounded by adviser friends who also form the top echelon supervising different functions like; collec-tion of protection fees from businesses, finding new markets for their illicit businesses like drugs peddling and money laundering and bargaining with clients for security hire.

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The ability of those within the echelon to bring in more money from criminal activity and to provide for the gang always continues to impact and solidify their status within the gang. The structure of gangs varies in size from five or ten to several thousand. Sabaot land defense force has been pointed out as one that has thou-sands of followers. Larger gangs have a tendency of breaking up into smaller groups. Small groups are as-sumed to bring more territory to a gang as they expand and recruit new members. There are several reasons as to why these gangs are born. Obviously, issues relating to unemployment, weak justice system, corruptible law enforcement systems, poverty, ignorance, widened socio-economic class inequality, moral reprehension only helps to create a lucrative vacuum for the gangs. The gangs therefore profit from instability due to existence of few incentives for peace (viii). The same gangs are with time nur-tured intelligently, to fend for themselves legally for purposes of providing an alibi that portrays them as law abiding groups and hence reducing circumstances where they can directly be held to account for their crimi-nal actions (ix). On the flipside, gangs whether camouflaged into vigilante or organized forms or just in their plain street wise sense, receive a lot of protection from politicians who uses them to advance their own political millage (x). It is argued that politicians provide the gangs with money to lure loyalty and obedience not only amongst gang members but also to impose the former‟s popularity within the slums and urban areas. At the rural areas, vigi-lante formation is more visible, and is notorious for harassing and intimidating people from minority tribes. Recently, the police service has amplified its intelligence to look into cases brought forward regarding the vio-lence caused by gangs in western Kenya and the several reported instances of lawlessness, opening a num-ber of case files in this regard. The police service has however failed to effectively deal with the dynamism of gangs especially where their activities are subtle because of lack of information for tactical and strategic use. A lot of articles written on line indicate that the same police service has been blamed for being reluctant in arresting gang members and in the process defying intelligence collected. This is allegedly because; a num-ber of their personnel are in the pay slips of these gangs.

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Stopping the Violence Efforts by the government to monitor and control the activities of gangs have been hindered greatly by a lack of relevant research about the gangs, lack of specialized officers, a poor police to public ratio and lack of vol-unteering witnesses to launch any effective prosecutions. Further, the police force lacks competent prosecu-tors to hunch important cases. The gangs on the other side always assemble the best of legal minds to launch their defenses in courts. Even with their limitations, the police force has been able to come up with some methods to beat the gangs, like community policing and legislative interventions (the crimes prevention Act). According to the Director of Community Policing, community policing has aided the force in inciting citizens against any form of crimes. But the most hyped tool for police came last year when the prevention of organ-ized crimes Act of 2010 was assented. The Crimes prevention Act provides that any member of an outlawed gang upon conviction shall be jailed for a term not exceeding 10 years or given a fine of KSH 500,000, or both, upon conviction. Any member of an outlawed gang caught extorting from any economic sector is to be handed a jail term of 14 years or a KSH 1 million fine, or both. Those nabbed training gangs are to be jailed for 14 years or given a fine of KSH 1 million, or both. Any gang member or society member caught oathing criminals to any cause is to be jailed for a life-time without an option of a fine (xii).

The role of civil society reducing the harms of gangerism The civil society has a role to play in ensuring that socio-political and economic conditions that help to pro-duce and nurture gangs are reformed and transformed with sounds engagement. Reforms and upgrading in the police sector is critical to ensure that the institution has the ability to institute law and order. Civil society can provide financial and technical complementarities as well as instituting watchdog roles. The same civil society must be able to engage the organized gangs from a do no harm principle to understand and involve them in various alternative income generating activities through reintegration initiatives in a bid to break down unpleasant environmental conditions which protect the growth of gangs. Other areas the civil society can exploit are: engaging with politicians cleverly to dissuade them from bending the laws and promoting chaos for their own millage; strengthening community policing and the relevant ap-proaches to security promotion. Demobilizing and disarming gangs is also palatable, but must be coordinated together with the government to carefully ensure do no harm principles is upheld and that the government‟s responsibility of controlling small arms is progressively actualized. There is no one best way to this problem and all informed interventions through collaboration and partnership would work just well.

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Endnotes…… (i) Miller, W.B. (1992) Crime by Youth Gangs and Groups in the United States: Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, p 45. (ii) Edwin Adoga and Daniel Kiptugen (2013), Focus Group Discussions with local civil society organizations in Bungoma CJPC office on the current insecurity in the country and specifically in Bungoma, Busia and Kakamega Counties. (iii) Lydia, Matata, Increasing crime. The Star digital newspaper, 2nd May 2013. (iv) Get the facts right commentaries (2012) „Sungu sungu, Chinkororo and Amachuma‟ Available at: www.kisii.com/commentaries/45-sungu-sungu-chinkororo-and-amachuma-get-the-facts-right). [Accessed 04 July 2013] (v) Government of Kenya (2010) „The prevention of crimes Act of 2010‟ gives the Minister of internal security powers where she/he has reasonable grounds to believe that a specified group is engaged in any organized criminal activity, may, on the advice of the inspector of Police, by notice, declare that specified group as an organized criminal group. (vi) Get the facts right commentaries (2012) „Sungu sungu, Chinkororo and Amachuma‟ Available at: www.kisii.com/commentaries/45-sungu-sungu-chinkororo-and-amachuma-get-the-facts-right). [Accessed 07 July 2013] (vii) Dan Ominde (2012) „Mungiki-type gangs in Kisumu: Political sponsors behind killings‟ Available at: Daily Nation Digi-tal Edition www.dailynationnewspaper.co.ke and (http://057secrets.blogspot.com).[Accessed 07 July 2013] (viii) United Nation Office on Drug and Crimes, http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/frontpage/preventing-organized-crime-from-spoiling-peace.html.[Accessed 12 July 2013] (ix) The American Marines group membership from Nyalenda and owns small businesses while China Squad mainly operate at the Kisumu Bus Park running several honest business. (x) East Africa Destination Magazine (2012) On Fertile Ground: Rise of Kenyan Gangs 5 November p 18, politicians have been using gangs more frequently during campaigns to scare away their opponents and ensure their popularity. It is alleged that American Marine and china squads have been used by both ODM and TNA respectively for protection purposes (xi) Amorphous killer Gangs have mushroomed in Bungoma and Busia counties consisting between 5 to 30 men, armed with crude weapons terrorizing residents at night and carrying out vicious attacks for hours. (xii) East Africa Destination Magazine (2012) On Fertile Ground: Rise of Kenyan Gangs 5 November p 15

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Author Bio Mr.Ottichilo has been working with civil society for the past four years and has extensive knowledge and skills in the realms of peacebuilding, local governance, education, research and community empowerment programs. He has addi-tionally worked in different capacities within international, national and community based organizations.

Disclaimer The views expressed herein are those of the Author and do not reflect the official position or opinion of any of the civil society organizations the Author work with. Sections or the entire Discussion paper may be replicated or used appro-priately by different party(s) as long as the Author is dully acknowledged.