Guns for hire: The political goons of Central Kenya

They are brutal, loud and disruptive, with their only goal being to prematurely end any meeting of a politician they do not agree with. They mostly comprise political activists, casual labourers and boda boda riders and their services go for anything between Sh500 and Sh2,000.  

Ideally, they will sit in meetings pretending to be residents following the proceedings only to cause chaos later.

Political violence witnessed in Murang’a recently came as a shock to many, with the general opinion being that the sights are uncommon within central Kenya.

While this is partly true, the fact is, last week’s happenings are a replica of past political events in Mt Kenya and a growing political trend.

Kieleweke and Tangatanga factions of the ruling Jubilee Party play the roles of both protagonist and antagonist depending on who is hosting the meetings.

The mission usually is to make sure the meetings either do not happen or do not go according to plan.

At the centre of the chaos are politicians themselves and hired goons who take the frontline in the disruptive missions.

Political gangs

Usually, the youths are paid to attend meetings and heckle and disrupt any political rally they do not agree with.

According to long-serving career administrator Joseph Kaguthi, political competition became a matter of the monied and the crudely daring that saw the emergence of political gangs squeezed off any drip of humanity, ready to kill, maim and displace at the mention of a handout.

“Kenyans will remember that by 1997 when we held our second multi-party general election, nearly all politicians had an own ragtag militia armed to battle competition. It was a new phenomenon and security agencies had not anticipated the challenge hence why the country was caught terrible on the wrong footing as death toll started to rise in political contests,” he told the Nation.

Mr Kaguthi said the problem became entrenched because politicians have this uncanny cheek of uniting behind their own causes—and the government politicians united with their opposition comrades to advance use of political jeshis.

Security agents

“This left security agents divided and with no manual to action to refer to since if the big man was having jeshis together with his allies in ruling parties, how would they crack down on them? The opposition politicians took cue and by 2007 when the use of militias exploded on us to give rise to politically instigated violence that drew the wrath of the International Criminal Court (ICC), our python that we had nurtured had matured,” he says.

By last year when he quit as national chairman of Nyumba Kumi Security initiative, he says the gangs were firmly in place waiting for financiers to show up.

Last week, Interior PS Karanja Kibicho told the Nation that “the security agents will not be a passive onlooker as youths get wasted in dangerous games that some of our politicians play.”

He said the government is going to get into the nervous system of political gangs and induce a total paralysis in them.

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