Kenyan criminals are using their resourcefulness to unleash an unprecedented wave of deadly car jackings, lucrative kidnappings and violent robberies at a time when many kenyans are unable to make any ends meet. For the most part all these incidences have involved the unfortunate loss of precious lives. It seems everyone is now a target and no one is spared including members of our own government.
The most recent incident involved a kidnap attempt on assistant nairobi metropolitan minister Elizabeth Ongoro's child from the prestigious Makini school. Insecurity is knocking at the executive door. Only last week youthful permanent youth secretary Murugu Kinuthia was shot and wounded in Hurligham in what is now an all too common scenario involving fatal car-jackings resulting in either near death experiences if not permanent loss of life. Thank God the job was not finished.
Gangster's paradise
Earlier this month Evans Akula MP was car-jacked. Being an MP he was robbed of the equivalent of two year's worth of taxed salary for the honest above average earning Kenyan tax payer. I am sure you're as concerned as i am it could be your MP next month.This insecurity problem is getting out of hand and fast. Gates are being opened quicker at night and dogs are upgraded from pet to security status.
As the Khwisero MP was chauffered around for three hours in a late night guided tour of the city he was chatted up by his captors who told him they were angry with parliament for not giving the country a new constitution and car-jacking was their escape route out of poverty. The gangster's have decided to make our nightmare their extended paradise oblivious of the fact a new constitution will not pass a law making car-jacking legal
It's not the first time this blog is speaking about security in our country. Chris has tirelessly worked to bring us up to speed with the security situation through his experience. The truth is no one kenyan life is more precious than the other and if only ordinary Kenyans had the luxury of knowing beforehand what crime was coming their way each day they would be forearmed . MPs whose lives are under threat possess firearms such that if indeed their life is in danger and they're not just crying wolf they can protect themselves.
Sadly the same luxury does not apply for the rest of ordinary kenyans although some kenyans in the diaspora have access to legally owning firearms. If only they would be so lucky to get a hint of what crime was coming their way at the start of each new day there'd be no need for a police force. The message is loud and clear -never before has the insecurity aspect of ordinary kenyan's daily hard-knock life rang so close to home for Kenyan MPs and government minister's. If executive action is going to be taken let it not be reserved only for the politicans and the elite but include ordinary kenyan lives which are just as inexpendable.
It's just a breakdown of the country as a whole and a sign that a huge bomb is ticking and will explode in 2012. Dont be surprised if this time a full scale civil war breaks out that Annan cant stop. Kenyan is the Titanic out at sea heading for the iceberg and Kenyans are just sitting down doing nothing. We should be out in the streets like Iranians, but unfortunantely we will all just sit and sulk until this country is no more. RIP Kenya. Keep supporting your Railas, Uhurus & Kibakis and this country is finished. We need a peoples change. we need civil disobedience and go-slows. Otherwise we are fooling ourselves, things will only get WORSE. Be prepared for more crime and anarchy because we have no leadership. Two centres of power brings confusion, no one knows who is our leader and where we're going. Can we wake up before its too late is the question.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Eenjera on this one Luke. I have been telling you guys to apply for green cards since this coalition nonsense started, let those who have ears hear.
ReplyDeleteThe rate at which we are also auctioning this country is alarming. There's a new breed of business people who in these hard economic times are making cash like there is no tomorrow. Ask yourself if they have anything to do with the rising insecurity.
And where in the world do you find foreigners who arrived as refugees with nothing making the bulk of the cash in the economy? How is it the locals have not seen those opportunities? Ama even that is hardwork by the refugees?
Some things happen only in Kenya. May the last person turn off the lights on their way out.
My heart goes to the little kid who was about to be kidnapped from Makini. But my heart doesn't go to Ms Ongoro. Those who know Elizabeth Ongoro well will tell you that she is part of the kleptocratic impunity in this country. In Kasarani (and in Nairobi generally) she is one of the largest land grabbers. She just grabbed 96 acres from the Seventh Adventist Church in Kasarani - that is, on top what she had been grabbed previously. Soon she will be in the same league with Mama Ngina Kenyatta in Kasarani area. In short, she is part of the insecurity!!!!
ReplyDeletewell if mboya and jm and ouku could be killed....anything can happen.....peace begets peace...unfortunately violence begets violence...the way out for the next generation is cumpolsory school where proper values are taught to totos...for the short term bring in the army...
ReplyDeleteby the way anyone knows why everytime kenyatta visited mombasa state house...stores on moi avenue, digo road and kilindini road were broken into almost every night????the jogoo has come home to roost......
at awendo the thugs are killing tuk tuk riders! they rob taxi drivers and the police do not care!
ReplyDeleteLuke, Kumekucha and the rest.
ReplyDeleteWhat influence escalating crime is also the culture, and not poverty per se. That's why even though there is also a big gap between the rich and the poor in India, crime is almost nil.
In regard to cultural influence to escalating crime in Kenya, I would like to pass blame on the media first of all before I pass blame on our police force, leaders and parents - I'll do that later because they are also partly to blame.
Everyday the media feeds us with the western culture of pride and flaunting. Look at the songs we hear and the message it contains, open todays Nation Newspaper and go to Money magazine and see how people are flaunting with their wealth - is it that one that people say the current car they are driving and the future car they will drive. What do you expect the youth who see this articles to think?
What the police are fighting hard to uproot is the plant that the media and western culture sowed.
I know most people will not agree with me, but my arguement comes from the young kids who are terrorising motorists, and mind you they use guns nowadays. Lets not concentrate on their actions so much and forget what prompted them to act that way. It is now known that most of them do that so that eventually they can also belong to the "first lane" society, and just like the members of that society, they can also be able to spend huge sums of money hopping from clubs to clubs in all upmarket neighbourhoods in Nairobi you can think of.
If everyday I open a magazine and see well cladded "celebrities", flaunting their clothes, "blings", "chikitas" and "cruises", while admiring them and wanting to have them, what should I do? That's how this young children are doing. We need to find out from a sociologist why "ngeta" was so rampant in Jericho than other neighbourhoods in Eastlands, can it also be that they wanted to be like fellow "Snoop Doggy Doggs" in "Buru"? .......
I know sometimes a dog cannot disturb you so much if it hasn't seen you with meat than if it sees you with one. It's like dangling a piece of carrot to a rabbit and blaming it for following you, wanting to grab it. I know to some level you cannot hide everything you have, like a good mansion, but should you report to all Tom, Dick and Harry all over Kenya through magazines such as Money, Buzz, Pulse etc of your shoe wardrobe, your limo, and how much you make in a month through your core job and "side kicks" jobs? This to me is like showing a dog a morsel and wondering why it's pestering you.
I'll be back to comment on how our parents also need to be blamed, though I still find the media needs to be blamed more than our parents.
So before we throw all our blames to police force and our leaders only, lets thing deeply and see, "are there other culprits other than the thugs themselves, inefficiency by our men in blue and lack of commitment from our leaders?"
Sometimes I see that poor governance, poor leadership, insecurity, corruption, hunger etc that is befalling Kenya is as a result of greed, deceit, selfishness and sometimes laziness of the Kenyan society in general.
ReplyDeleteEverytime I look 6 feet deep to most problems we face I blame our leaders, but when I look 20 feet deep I find myself blaming our society that we call Kenya.
Off the topic.
ReplyDeleteBy the way for those who are not aware, Evangelist Thomas Manton came with a prophesy of Kibaki win in 2007, that circulated in the internet, which I saw was also used to pull christians to vote for Kibaki.
Find out in Nation newspaper and Standard newspaper what he was caught doing - it is alleged.
Let me see, I should also tell people of impending 2012 genocide in Kenya that I received through a vision, and how earlier I had prophesied genocide in 2007, and how people can avoid this through prayers, then open a church in Nakuru, and insist on big offerings. Don't you think this will work?
Just joking.
But this is part of the Kenyan society that I'm talking about. Where some priest, out of greed, steal from the flock, while the flock, also out of greed, also wants to solely gain materially from the church, how? A friend of mine once told me, "Philip, you need to join a church because when you are bereaved then you'll have the church to assist you" or another one, "Philip, you need to join a church so that when they have projects you'll also get one, or you can get a good network that can have people who can give you consultancy jobs."
Can't you see the Kenyan society?
Just what do you expect to happen in the world's 3rd most unequal country..hehehe.
ReplyDeleteJust what do you expect to happen in a country surrounded by failed states like Somalia?
Just what do you expect to happen in a country where you can afford to buy or hire a pistol in Eastleigh for just under 10k?
Where even if caught with an AK47, you just bribe your way out by making your file to "disappear" magically in thin air or use bent cops to intimidate potential witnesses?
Where the youth know it pays big time to be a criminal outfit like Mungiki whom even the politicians now want to embrace and dialogue?
Where a degree means absolutely nothing unless you belong to the right tribe or your uncle is a big shot in government?
Where the president is always busy sleeping in state house without a care in the world?
Where politicians are busy dodging taxes, squabbling over positions and moaning about carpets and toilets?
Where the national leadership expect investors to flock in despite constant gunshots in towns and villages.
And could PS Murugu just tell us what he was doing in Kilimani at 3AM with the young lady called Akinyi who happens to live in Umoja estate?
It's all in times and life of a country busy LIVING IN DENIAL, FRAUD AND DECEPTION!
Oh Phillip, still blaming the west for our self inflicted misery?
ReplyDelete"Everyday the media feeds us with the western culture of pride and flaunting. Look at the songs we hear and the message it contains..
"
Kwani it's only in Kenya we listen and watch Western filth? You mean Tanzanians don't have the access or even countries like Switzerland where crime is almost zero?
Leta ingine.
Luka,
ReplyDeleteWhy are you raining on people's party? The crime wave is back and unlike the 1990s this time is big time business. Cast you eyes no further than Eastliegh in NBO and Majengo in Msa and you get the source of all industry.
Blaming our crime on poverty is to spite ourselves. There are many societies more unequal than ours but our culture bereft of values is our singular undoing. Don't we applaud Somalis for being industrious oblivious of what busines it is?
Next time they will protect their wealth with granades and we will be the cannon fodder. Pirates are investing locally and we are all laughing and encouraging industry. We lost the moral authority by selling our soul to Arabs and other bidders, OLE WETU.
Once again the way people throw that word civil war its like its a needed break or something.
ReplyDeleteWe dont need to get to that point. Can you imagine on a personal level what would happen to your family your friends if there is a civil war?
No, we are not going to have one, and it is not a ticking time bomb, if Kenyans want to stop this they can, by demanding change in 2012, as a group we can refuse to vote in incompetent leaders, our vote our choice.
I think the first thing is to change the mentality that disorder=war. Anyone who knows wars will tell you that it always starts at the grassroots, that is why as individuals, neighbours, communities, friends, you have to start that change.
@mama&@Taabu
ReplyDeleteI guess we will never know the answer to the question what is the cost of stealing an election unless you consider the butterfly effect
Thankfully matters of internal national security are above partisan politics-it would seem lives of members of both political parties are under threat and none is more dispensable than the other
food and shelter and security are indispensable cornerstones of a country.any problems with any three and your guess is as good as mine what the outcomes will be
m-pesa
ReplyDeleteRead my post carefully again.
What I tried to push, maybe not as satisfactorily as I may have wished, is that the cause of insecurity should not be blamed solely on poverty and poor leadership. But it's time to look at those involve in crime and find out why they do so.
By going to definition of poverty I find that there are some criminals who are not poor, or they don't go to crime because they are poor, but because they want more - go ask anybody in Buruburu and South B of the youths involve in crime and they'll tell you their life.
We are having a crop of criminals who are not poor but only want more. Maybe I need to collect more data to push further my arguement, however from what I heard not only from my friends but other sources about the youth in such areas, is that they want to "ng'ara" like the rest. "Ng'ara" meaning to dress like the rest, which eventually you'll land to the kind of life lived by the american musicians. Now these are the same youth terrorising motorists, using guns, though not all criminals are like that. Rumours and perception may not necessarily mean the truth, but can you go to eastlands and westlands and find out about the gangs terrorising people and why they do that?
I think we will need to go deeper by using an example. What was the cause of PEV violence? From first look it will be "stolen elections", deeper than that it will be "unequitable distribution of land", then deeper than that it will be "Poor leadership by Kenyatta" and further - deeper will be "Poor constitution". In the end, what was the cause of PEV violence? In normal circumstances we will not choose what started initially, i.e "Poor constitution" but all will be regarded as the causes of PEV.
Some countries like India have minimal crime not because there is good security and people are rich, but because people don't get themselves involve in crime, period. While others it's because poverty levels are minimal. In the case of Kenya it's a combination of many things. If beefing up security will reduce crime it does not mean that the problem of crime in Kenya is because of lack of security only. Poverty has been added to it, and now I have added cultural issues. Maybe I should avoid using "western culture" and instead use "hip-hop culture" does that hit a point to you m-pesa.
Some characters we inherit from the environment we live. These young kids have become greed for more because of the culture they live in, which I'm calling 'hip-hop' culture. So can this be a cause? My answer is "Yes"
So m-pesa, tafadhali vuka sakafu kwa mwendo wa aste aste na uniunge mkono (I'm reminding myself of the debates in Primary School).
The original sin in Kenya was Jomo Kamau wa Muigai Kenyatta.
ReplyDeleteIt was Kenyatta who used to koroga in his Kikuyu language on national holidays, say, on Madaraka or Uhuru Day, such moral and ethical lines: STEAL BUT BE VERY SMART WHEN YOU STEAL, AS LONG AS YOU ARE NOT CAUGHT.
The abysmally ignorant but impressionable Kikuyus masses loved it when Kenyatta gave such immoral and tawdry speeches, and would often be seen clapping and ululating to high heavens.
Some Kikuyus, like Kaggia, however, did confound Kenyatta. When Kenyatta offered him "free" land totalling 300 acres, Kaggia declined. Upset that Kaggia had chosen to put public interest above self, Kenyatta went to the former's constituency were he scolded Kaggia thus:
We were together with Paul Ngei in jail. If you go to Ngei's home he has planted a lot of coffee and other crops. What have you done for yourself? If you go to Kubai's home, he has a big house and a nice shamba. Kaggia, what have you done for yourself? We were together with Kung'u Karumba in jail, now he is running his own buses. What have you done for yourself?
Countries like people tend to have their own personalities.
We got your point you hate Kenya, so why are you on a blog that talks about Kenya?
ReplyDeleteWhat do you suggest we do? Since you hate it so much?
So, to remind us of how grave the situation is, you must hate Kenya.
ReplyDeleteHate is a strong word so dont forget to use it sparingly
"What have you done for yourself?" is a legitimate question. In its ordinary meaning it is intended to jolt a person to take control of ones life instead of complaining and waiting for manna to rain from heaven. What I am saying is that the context of the question matters, and the confrontation between Kaggia and Kenyatta, that day, in Kandara, is often quoted out of context. That is, it is cut and pasted to fit Kenyatta haters' whimsical interpretations.
ReplyDeleteOf course Kenyatta was a crook, but he may had a point when it came to the personal life of Kaggia. Kaggia's later life wasn't particularly emulable. His early life was heroic in the struggle for independence but he later stuck to an irrational ideological stand to the point of self-neglect. To live a decent life doesn't mean one has to steal. Kungu Karumba didn't steal to get his buses, neither did Oginga Odinga steal to get East Africa Specter or to educate his children.
Unlike his soulmates (like Odinga), Kaggia would complain endlessly without an action-plan; and what was pitiful, he seemed to relish his poverty.
Taabu, you hit ALL THE NAILS on the head when you said:
ReplyDelete"Blaming our crime on poverty is to spite ourselves. There are many societies more unequal than ours but our culture bereft of values (fraud, deception and theft are our collective value. Italics mine) is our singular undoing. Don't we applaud Somalis for being industrious oblivious of what business it is?"
I could not agree more. The way things are going, Kenya is hurtling down the road toward a very big explosion come 2012.
Mwambu the great, I agree with you 100% when you said - about Jomo - thus:
ReplyDelete"It was Kenyatta who used to koroga in his Kikuyu language on national holidays, say, on Madaraka or Uhuru Day, such moral and ethical lines: STEAL BUT BE VERY SMART WHEN YOU STEAL, AS LONG AS YOU ARE NOT CAUGHT.
The abysmally ignorant but impressionable Kikuyus masses loved it when Kenyatta gave such immoral and tawdry speeches, and would often be seen clapping and ululating to high heavens."
Spot on, Mwambu, Spot on
How could any moral or ethical person even try to draw a moral equivalence between the life of Kaggia that dignified and honest man, and Jomo Kenyatta that thieving and murderous man?
ReplyDeleteGiven a choice between Kenyatta or Kaggia, I would venture that most Kenyans would rather Kaggia over Kenyatta.
Yes sir, 4:58 AM, I can never support Kenyatta. Ever.
ReplyDeleteThis man, Jomo Kenyatta, was a petty, vindictive and vengeful little man if you ask me; a man with no endearing or redeeming qualities whatsoever.
Kenyatta is also the principal reason why Kenya is such an incredibly corrupt, tribal, greedy and unequal society.
It is pitiable how many here subscribe (knowingly or unknowingly) to the rather tepid "great man of history" theory. For as long as that subscription exists, individual agency and responsibility, which are significant in explaining both current affairs and history, will sadly be relegated to the dark recesses of our anuses. It is no wonder that very the very little problem solving that occurs is punctuated with larger and longer bursts of whining and scapegoating. What a wasted opportunity!!!!
ReplyDeleteMwambu I could not agree more. 99% of our problems in Kenya start with this man Kenyatta who was the first commander-in-thief in Kenya.
ReplyDelete99% of our problems in Kenya start with this man Kenyatta who was the first commander-in-thief in Kenya.
ReplyDeleteSO?
Your so-called tepid "great man of history" theory is in my view but one theory but not the sole one I can find to explain Kenya's slow but sure descent into a Banana Republic. But for that descent let us give thanks to one man, Jomo Kenyatta, and his posse of ass licker Kiambu Mafia types and institutions he forced upon Kenyans.
ReplyDeleteKenyatta's myopic and jaundiced man's "visions", decisions and orders live with us to this day.
That one man can do good, such as create institutions or influence public mores and ethics, or conversely, be the single source for most of that is bad is manifest in numerous cases of great men in history:
Alexander the Great;
Martin Luther King, jr;
Napoleon Bonaparte; Hitler;
Pol Pot;
Lee Kuan Yew;
Stalin;
Deng Xiao Ping
and closer to home, Idi Amin.
Kenyatta is the single biggest reason why Kenya remains such a dysfunctional country polarised along tribal and ethnic lines. His policy decisions such as the Ndegwa Commission edicts, land redistribution in the Rift Valley favoring his ethnic Kikuyus inculcated in Kenyans a penchant for corruption, tribal hatred and bigotry. Kenyatta, and the misguided policies he pursued, destroyed the incipient democracy post-independence, made Kenyans parochial and provincial thus failing to nurture in them a sense of nationhood. Nyerere in Tanzania was the direct polar opposite to Kenyatta.
kenya is a stinking shit hall ledby monkey prsident and cry baby PM
ReplyDeleteI'm posting this comment regarding that article that was accusing Somalis of illegal business practices in Nairobi, its a continuation of that exchanges between us Somalis and those who hate Somalis, i'm sorry I have to hijack this comment place because they closed down the other one.........Kimi, i'm lowering my status just acknowleding you as a fellow human being, even though I still insist you and your folks are at best Baboons and at worst hyennas. That been said, I will address your redicalious assurtion that Somalis are only involved in the informal sector of Kenya's business when in reality we can be found in many different sectors of Kenya's business infrastucture may it be the Banking system as well as the real estate one. FYI, we are spreading our economical influence in almost all of the Nairobi city limits. As the article written by your fellow baboon indicates we are buying more land in every part of Nairobi, so thats self-explanatory.
ReplyDeleteAlso, we do not inspire to have your dirty worthless passport to traverse the world because almost all of us have in possession passports from the Western countries, I myself hold dual citizenship from Canada and the States.
Like I said before you people are full of jealiousy because you just cant compete with us in so many way. Somalis have that incredeable genious entrepreneurship mentality which follows them everywhere they go. I suggest you come down here to my hometown of Columbus ohio and see how many business we run and how the mayor is happy to have us here rather than be jealious of us. Look my dear baboons, dont hate the player hate the game. You have 32 mill Kenyans(additional 8 million are Somali-Kenyans) who are stuck in slave mentality that they only know how to work for a boss whether it is a whiteman, Indians and that one percent rich Kenyans. They just dont think to themselves and realize that they own the country and should work to alliviate themselves from this poverty. Nah i'm sure that will not happen because your minds are structured like that of a baboon, so therefore you will only think and act like a monkey. So I suggest, you take this advice from me which is "Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery".
When it comes to the fact that we happen to be refugees, I say again and again do not use that BS to try to get your point accross. The reason we fight each other is because we are the truest man in Africa. We are brave and we dont give a fuck. We capture the world's headlines though we only about 15 million because we are very confident brave and daring people. Although we need to realize that we need to channel that pure genious rage inside us towards positive activity rather than fighting one another and capturing ships. Nevertheless, my pride of being Somali can never be diminished by low life Baboons who I do not even recognize if they are human beings or not.
To whoever said that we do not consider ourselves Africans needs to get his baboon mind straight because we are the original Africans. We are not arabs. We dont inspire to be Arabs. We also do not inspire to be Baboons either because we are our own unique race. Look I do not have a kinky hair or a noise hole the sise of a water well.
Kimi, i'm lowering my status just acknowleding you as a fellow human being, even though I still insist you and your folks are at best Baboons and at worst hyennas. That been said, I will address your redicalious assurtion that Somalis are only involved in the informal sector of Kenya's business when in reality we can be found in many different sectors of Kenya's business infrastucture may it be the Banking system as well as the real estate one. FYI, we are spreading our economical influence in almost all of the Nairobi city limits. As the article written by your fellow baboon indicates we are buying more land in every part of Nairobi, so thats self-explanatory.
ReplyDeleteAlso, we do not inspire to have your dirty worthless passport to traverse the world because almost all of us have in possession passports from the Western countries, I myself hold dual citizenship from Canada and the States.
Like I said before you people are full of jealiousy because you just cant compete with us in so many way. Somalis have that incredeable genious entrepreneurship mentality which follows them everywhere they go. I suggest you come down here to my hometown of Columbus ohio and see how many business we run and how the mayor is happy to have us here rather than be jealious of us. Look my dear baboons, dont hate the player hate the game. You have 32 mill Kenyans(additional 8 million are Somali-Kenyans) who are stuck in slave mentality that they only know how to work for a boss whether it is a whiteman, Indians and that one percent rich Kenyans. They just dont think to themselves and realize that they own the country and should work to alliviate themselves from this poverty. Nah i'm sure that will not happen because your minds are structured like that of a baboon, so therefore you will only think and act like a monkey. So I suggest, you take this advice from me which is "Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery".
When it comes to the fact that we happen to be refugees, I say again and again do not use that BS to try to get your point accross. The reason we fight each other is because we are the truest man in Africa. We are brave and we dont give a fuck. We capture the world's headlines though we only about 15 million because we are very confident brave and daring people. Although we need to realize that we need to channel that pure genious rage inside us towards positive activity rather than fighting one another and capturing ships. Nevertheless, my pride of being Somali can never be diminished by low life Baboons who I do not even recognize if they are human beings or not.
To whoever said that we do not consider ourselves Africans needs to get his baboon mind straight because we are the original Africans. We are not arabs. We dont inspire to be Arabs. We also do not inspire to be Baboons either because we are our own unique race. Look I do not have a kinky hair or a noise hole the sise of a water well.
This long statement above is directed at the previous article which accused Somalis of dubious business practices in Nairobi. They closed down that comment section of that article.
ReplyDeleteIlyas and others
ReplyDeleteComments section in previous post were closed, having exhausted meaningful debate and degenerated to levels in breach of house rules.
You may begin a new thread by sending a post or contact the editor through email to umissedthis at yahoo dot com