Ngelelya town, where government is the ‘mafia’
Ngelelya town in Murang'a County.
The small, muddy, busy, poorly planned but promising Ngelelya town in Murang’a County has churches in excess, but it tops Ithanga/Kakuzi sub-county in crime.
The town has a near 50:50 ratio of the Agikuyu and Akamba communities, who have extensively intermarried to give rise to a common joke that area people are a new tribe called the Agikamba that should be officially recognised.
With more than 30 Christian churches concentrated in less than 15 acres of land, the town is under the tight grip of cartels that run the show in a mafia version, using threats, intimidation, brutality and cruelty to achieve their ends.
The town’s mainstay is mainly mango, peas, oranges and sand harvesting. It has no industries to explain why it has a vibrant tenancy business.
Rents for residential houses range between Sh1,500 and Sh2,500, while business premises go for between Sh3,000 and Sh5,000 per single room.
A plot measuring 50 by 100 feet sells for an asking price of Sh1.5 million.
From left: Jack, Kenneth and Sylvia at the joint grave of their parents Mr and Mrs Peter Mucunu Karitu who were shot dead at Ngelelya town on March 9, 2018
“This town has a mafia boss who is the law … He is the one who coordinates the criminal world with the government and he rules who will get what, when and how,” said a local resident.
“If he rules that you die, you will end up dead and if he rules that the government should oppress you, it happens.”
Though the Ithanga/Kakuzi security committee says the town is under watch to maintain the rule of law, residents cry out that “we cannot continue living under criminal capture and something must be done”.
A story is told that on March 9, 2018, at around 8.30pm, three gangsters entered the business premises of Mr Peter Mucunu Karitu and his wife Margaret Nyambura and shot them at point blank range.
The family was rich and ran several businesses in the town, owned several commercial buildings and engaged in large-scale farming.
“The attackers did not steal any cash from the millionaire couple … the intention was just to murder them. As the assailants left, one of them was heard saying people must learn how to follow simple instructions issued by the bosses,” said the couple’s eldest son, Jack Karitu.
Mr Peter Mucunu Karitu and his wife Mrs Margaret Nyambura who were shot dead in the business premises at Murang'a County's Ngelelya town on March 9, 2018 by three gangsters.
What followed was a hallowing experience for the couple’s three children, who in 2019 and 2020 received threatening messages warning them that they, too, would be murdered like their parents.
This forced Mr Karitu to flee from home, and his youngest sister was ‘adopted’ by a friendly neighbour.
“We complained to the police and the threatening messages were traced to a phone belonging to a neighbour. He was arrested but was released without any charges,” says the couple’s younger son, Kenneth Irungu.
On the evening of October 13 this year, there was an attempt to murder Mr Irungu. A female attacker stabbed him in the top right side of his shoulder and he was hospitalised for 10 days.
Even after he reported the incident at the Ithanga police station, he received a message from a strange number, warning him not to take his luck too far and that even if he survived the knife attack, another bid for his life could follow if he continued to press on with the case.
“This issue is a classic example of what life here in Ngelelya is like. We have a mafia network that targets the rich demanding extortion fees on a monthly basis. Once you fail to pay up, you get murdered or harassed out of business,” said a local resident, who added that he has lived in the town since 1979. The town was founded in 1962 as a settlement scheme.
The closed business premises into which Mr and Mrs Peter Mucunu Karitu were shot dead by three gangsters on March 9, 2018
In the past four years, four people have been murdered in the town, dozens robbed and scores of others threatened with messages that are all traced to one businessman living in the town that residents silently and fearfully refer to as the ‘master’.
In the control of the mafia network is an extortion racket that collects money from investors and land brokers and the loot is said to be shared by criminals and rogue police officers.
The network is also said to be behind the bold and open sale of bhang and intoxicating benzodiazepine drugs at an open-air field where police are alleged to be seen conversing with the peddlers in a friendly manner.
“That mafia network is behind the sale of alcohol outside regulated hours and from all the 10 bars and five wines and spirits shops that we have, law enforcement is non-existent, hence making us a town that relies on the law of the jungle for social engineering,” said a resident.
When there are government jobs up for grabs, some residents report that mafia appointees go about collecting bribes on behalf of senior officers.
Most jobs that include those of chiefs and their assistants and in the disciplined forces go allegedly for between Sh300,000 and Sh500,000.
Kenneth Irungu who after phone warnings that he would be murdered was knifed at Ngelelya market on October 23 and was hospitalized for 10 days
It is said that this suggests that there are people in Ngelelya who are untouchable because they manage the corruption network for the benefit of enforcement and in return, they enjoy unlimited powers to engage in runway impunity.
So mad is area MP Edward Muriu that he told Nation.Africa on Wednesday that “we simply cannot accept that region to degenerate into lawlessness”.
He said he has personally called the area security bosses and advised them to ensure that residents feel and see security at play.
“As a government, we have vowed to ensure all policies of governance adhere to the bottom-up model. It goes without saying who is bearing the brunt of this insecurity in that area,” he said.
He said his “satisfaction will be when residents report back that they feel safe, are enjoying trading without hindrances and that their government officials are serving them fairly and equally”.
Area Deputy County Commissioner Angela Makau said “we have a unique problem here, where the town borders Machakos County and is a hardship zone that uniquely attracts migration from rural areas to Ngelelya”.
She told Nation.Africa that security agencies are fighting narcotics and illicit brews and “we know by profile all the problematic suspects and they are on our radar”.
Ms Makau complained that locals “behave too much like activists who are happy to report their challenges to the media instead of the authorities”.
She complained that “complainants and suspects rely on coached witnesses for hire” and compromise cases in court.
Ms Makau said her sub-county was only created in 2021 “and most of the challenges we have in area security have been embedded over a period of time”.
But she said the problems will be resolved over time and that “in the few months we have been around, we have demonstrated that we are equal to the task”.
