EDITORIAL: Quash gangs before they overrun the country

The warning from the Senate is not casual alarmism. It is a red flag. Across counties, criminal gangs are resurfacing — extorting traders, terrorising residents and creeping into political spaces with disturbing familiarity.

History teaches us what happens when such groups are ignored: they mutate from street criminals into political tools. That danger is no longer theoretical. Senators have openly warned that gangs could be weaponised ahead of the polls.

Allegations that some leaders move with armed groups — and that police officers sometimes look the other way — should shake the country. If criminal networks become campaign accessories, the line between democracy and organised intimidation disappears.

Security agencies must act — and act now. Not with cosmetic crackdowns or periodic swoops that produce headlines but little deterrence.

What is required is sustained intelligence-led operations, prosecution that sticks and clear signals that no politician enjoys protection.

But enforcement alone will not solve the problem. Gangs thrive where institutions fail and opportunity collapses. Youth unemployment, economic distress and rural-urban migration have created fertile ground for recruitment.

When young people lose faith in legitimate pathways, criminal networks offer belonging, income and power. That is the deeper crisis.

Counties and the national government cannot speak of empowerment programmes while entire neighbourhoods shut down at dusk. Investors will not come. Tourism will not recover. Businesses will not expand. Fear is the enemy of development.

The police must remain apolitical. Politicians must resist the temptation to outsource intimidation. And governments must treat youth job creation as a security priority, not a campaign slogan.

Kenya has seen the cost of politically fuelled violence before. Allowing gangs to regroup now would not just endanger communities. It would endanger the integrity of the next election itself.

The country cannot afford that gamble.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: “When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something.”—American politician and prominent civil rights leader John Lewis was born on February 21, 1940