Rise of Gangs in Kenya
I was hoping our lovely State would get better with time after the ‘mock’ Presidential swearing-in took place without any blood-shed. Woe unto my optimistic patriotic self.
Can’t keep my silence any longer!
So the other day a truck was torched to a crisp somewhere in Kitui by residents of the County. Apparently Governor Charity Ngilu, one of the leading female politicians in Kenya had dismissively told her followers to deal with the charcoal traders that criss-cross their county. Her heart seemingly in the right place as she was addressing the desertification of her area.
Eastern Region, formerly Province, contrary to popular belief isn’t as dry as socially advertised. The perception of Eastern as some sort of desert has played a key role in making it a target of charcoal traders and other desertification agents! The residents had had enough and were taking the law into their hands and a lorry was the first casualty of their protest.
Consequently, other traders, any where between charcoal traders to transporters, rioted across the country in unique fashion. Block the Naivasha – Nakuru highway with stones, deflate the tire pressure of trailers, lorries and cars in the route. Demanding an audience with the President or the Deputy President. Police commanders, County representatives even the famed County governors couldn’t get through to them.
Weirdly the police came to the scene with a negotiating tone not the callous, abrasive course of action we have learned to live with! Granted this is the kind of policing we wish for and wish they keep on the trend. Question though resurfaces as to why the government agents deal with the President & DP’s tribes men with velvet gloves…. Talk of this observation cropped up as soon as the group barricaded the international road, over their comrade and the police didn’t respond with the characteristic tear gas & gunshots.
The talk of any problem facing our nation keeps developing paradigms on paradigms. A simple issue as this has so many layers for the local Kenyan to understand; on one side we have a force fighting for afforestation (fancy for desertification), on the other we have a group of beneficiaries of the desertification trade using crude ways to protest the criminal act metted upon their members.
Currently the story gets to the ground, like wild fire, and the take away of half the population is a tribal one; Kambas are fighting Kikuyus. Inquisitive minds are baffled but decide to leave the case be and focus on their jobs, not to develop the country but to make a living, not to build the nation but to pay bills and living expenses.
As all this is on-going let’s forget the lack of water in Nairobi, the in-efficiency of SGR after the billions spent and debt accrued. Let’s all forget the corruption cases that have since gone to court with seemingly no conviction.
