It will take me a while to get over the scenes I saw on television of goons holding big jembe sticks threatening the protestors who were demanding justice for Ojwang. The goons, who were charged, showing their faces seemingly well-coordinated, were telling all who cared to listen that “hatutakubali maandamano kwa hii town”.
They made good of their threats by beating people, looting, and what is worse, so far, none have been arrested. Some of the goons are now whistle-blowing, but not because they feel bad about their looting, but because they were not paid “na tulimaliza mboka” (and we finished our work and assignment). I was worried because the emboldment of goons and gangs could be a sign of danger ahead if not nipped in the bud, and the world has many examples of what is likely to happen when gangs spiral out of control and get a life of their own
By now you my reader has heard of the RSF, which for some reason has found solace and a good meeting point in Nairobi. They are excited about forming their parallel government, and from the look of things, they do not have budget problems. What is more? The RSF evolved from a gang/goon project organised and funded by the government of the then-ruling President Omar Al-Bashir to help his army put down a rebellion in the Darfur region.
Now, RSF has a life of its own, and the government of Sudan does not know what to do with the very monster they created. In Haiti, some of the gangs were formed by the government and or their agents. The tonton Macoute gang was formed during the Duvalier era as a tool of political repression and violence and after the fall of François Duvalier, they regrouped into many groupings that continue to be used politically to date. Haiti continues to be a war zone with no signs of peace in the near future.
My late grandfather was a man of few words. Like all the many men from Mt Kenya who had been involved in the Mau Mau, he would rarely want to give many details of the war and the brutality meted out to them by the British and by the fellow Kenyans who were collaborators. Probably because of the trauma or the oaths they had taken to be secretive and never disclose the details of the war, he was economical with words decades after the war had ended.
However, in his distinct Kikuyu accent, he would tell us that, “Mbara ti ûcúrû (War Is Not Porridge to be enjoyed and to be easily digested). He repeated this many times, including when we were watching the post-election violence media coverage. He had lived long enough to know that war and violence are a negative-sum game for all involved.
In 2010, a Report of the Parliamentary Select Committee on the Activities of Unlawful Organisations in Kenya, chaired by the then Ndaragwa MP Jeremiah Kioni(now Jubilee secretary general), identified and named some of the gangs in Kenya as Sabaot Land Defence Force, Mungiki, Jeshi la Embakasi, Jeshi la Kingo’le, Baghdad boys, Chinkororo, Amachuma, Sungusungu, Mungunipa, Banyamulenge, Talibans, Kosovo boys, Siafu, Irongo. The report further identified that political elites had a role to play in organising and funding the gangs.
The same report established that security forces were complacent in dealing with the gangs and from the look of things now, as it was then, not much has changed. As we saw in the streets this week, the gangs were politically mobilised and they seemed to be on the same side as the police to deal with the protestors. Forgetting that Article 37 of the Constitution guarantees the right to demonstrate and picket.
When Emeritus Chief Justice Maraga said that “elections are not an event, it is a process” he was alluding to the behaviour and conduct across the election cycle. With the rising cases of police brutality, violence, gangs and intention to muzzle digital activists, one would wonder, is this a sign of worse things to come in the next elections? I hope not. But I have lived in Kenya long enough to know that it is a possibility unless practical steps are taken to avert it. And the politicians behind all these must be named and shamed and held to account.
National Cohesion and Integration Commission, where are you? What are you waiting for a bell?
Let us all remember that Mbara ti ûcúrû.
Wanja Maina writes on current affairs
By Wanja Maina