Stop this goon culture before its too late, MP Millie Odhiambo warns

National Assembly Minority Whip Millie Odhiambo has raised concerns over increasing cases of goons being used in political and commercial disputes.

Millie, who is the Suba North MP, is now warning that unless the culture is nabbed on time, the country risks degenerating into the Haiti-style gangster due to breakdown of law and order.

The ODM MP cited recent cases in which over 100 thugs stormed a hotel in Kisumu owned by former PS Irungu Nyakera over an alleged rent dispute and a similar one in Nairobi at a premise owned by ex-minister Raphael Tuju.

“The rise of Gangster culture tolerated by authority will haunt Kenya. 100 gangsters were used to try and evict a businessman from premises in Kisumu. Similar gangsters were used to hound Tuju yesterday. Soon, like Haiti, we might need other nations to assist us deal with gangsters,” she wrote on her Facebook page.

On Wednesday morning, over 100 goons were captured on CCTV raiding the hotel on claims that they were enforcing a rent dispute between him and the landlord, Lake Basin Development Authority.

Speaking to journalists at Fairways Hotel, Kisumu, Nyakera said some hotel property, including electronic equipment and items from the conference facilities, had previously been removed during earlier confrontations related to the dispute.

“When I came downstairs, I found the place had been completely vandalised,” he said, adding that furniture in the restaurant had been overturned, the bar ransacked, and alcoholic drinks taken with bottles scattered across the floor. He estimated his lost at about Sh50 million.

And on the same day, ex-Minister Tuju was seen on a video clip confronting a group of goons, ordering them to leave the property at Dari Business Park in Karen in Nairobi. The incident took place on Wednesday night.

"The person whom they told me they were working for is a person who claims to have bought this place. But all those are some of the things which are being prosecuted in court," Tuju said.

In the past, several political rallies and church events have been disrupted by goons whom the opposition leaders claim are being aided and facilitated by the police.

On Wednesday, Linda Mwananchi caucus claimed a group of goons had attempted to storm their meeting at a Nairobi hotel but were repulsed.

Ten days ago, a group of nearly 200-armed goons were captured freely walking in the streets of Kisii town ahead of a United Opposition rally in the region.

The incident later degenerated into chaos where supporters of the opposition chiefs overwhelmed the group injuring leading to several injuries.