The rapid rise of criminal gangs must be treated as an urgent national security emergency.
The numbers, set out by the government, indicate that 89 in 2016 have mushroomed to 109 today, with Western Kenya the breeding ground, and Rift Valley and Nairobi ranked second and third. Between January and August, 1,827 suspects were arrested and charged.
The impact of their criminal enterprise is glaringly evident. We have already seen the consequences via disrupted rallies, citizens assaulted and maimed, property destroyed and lives lost. Mayhem cannot become normalised into the tapestry of our political culture.
Interior Principal Secretary Raymond Omollo announced security agencies are changing strategy, moving beyond individuals to deconstruct the networks that fund, recruit and arm the criminals. That is the right approach if carried out with ruthlessness.
The lesson from Haiti should be sobering. Criminal networks morphed from opportunistic thuggery into structured movements capable of controlling territory, extracting ransoms and challenging state authority. Our security forces must save us from such doom.
The gang lords must be relentlessly pursued and their financiers, recruiters and political patrons put behind bars via the use of intelligence and financial investigations. Their illegal firearms must be traced and destroyed. Security forces should not negotiate with the thugs.
These gangs are not a policing problem. They threaten peace, democracy, investment and the economy itself.
The crackdown must continue without fear or favour.
Quote of the day: "A man must be willing to die for justice. Death is an inescapable reality and men die daily, but good deeds live forever." —American clergyman, civil rights activist, and Democratic presidential candidate Jesse Jackson was born on October 8, 1941
