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"id": 94703,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/94703/?format=api",
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Kioni",
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"legal_name": "Jeremiah Ngayu Kioni",
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"content": "Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, on page six of the report some of the factors that can be attributed to the genesis of these organized groups are: unprecedented levels of unemployment in some parts of this country and in our country in general. There is quite some marked level of political influence or political actors in it. We have difficulties in housing, especially in the informal settlements. Some of these groups have been formed around some form of religious beliefs, levels of idleness which goes with unemployment in the country and lack of recreation facilities and social amenities in many parts of our country. We have peer influence, illiteracy and revenge for one reason or another. In essence, the social, economic and cultural forces also push the adolecents in the direction of illegal groups. When we were conducting our hearings, some researchers indicated to us that the under class status of the minority of youth do serve to push them into organized groups. For some groups, they take these unlawful groupings as a way of solving some of their social problems, given the many trials and tribulations that they go through at the age of adolescence. In some communities the youth are recruited through some form of coercion by those who are already members of the group. They coerce others, especially the young ones, to belong to their groups. Otherwise, they are also subjected to some form of punishment. Of course, given that these groups have been there for a while, we now have young people who are actually born by parents who belong to these unlawful groupings. They may not have much choice other than to belong to the groupings that have benefited their parents. So, from what we saw as a Committee, we can say that some of these groupings are out of circumstances surrounding a neighbourhood, but some have come forth from deliberate organizational structures or people who have come together with a clear intent of forming such groups. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, it is not possible to exhaust the list of known groups of such nature in this country. The Committee has, however, mentioned a few of them. They are Sabaot Land Defence Force (SLDF), Mungiki, Jeshi la Embakasi, Jeshi laKingâole, Baghdad Boys, Chinkororo, Amachuma, Sungusungu, Mulungunipa,Banyamlenge, Taliban, Kosovo Boys, Siafu and Iritongo among others. Some of the key observations that the Committee made from the hearings and many presentations that were made before it included the fact that the activities of these unlawful activities in Kenya are widespread. They are spread across the country. This was through an elaborate presentation made to us by the Minister of State for Provincial Administration and Internal Security and his team. We were informed by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports that the youth aged between 18 years and 35 years constituted about 14 million Kenyans and were the most affected by these unlawful groupings because they were the target group. Most of these groups are found within the low-income areas. These areas are also densely populated. The groups also offer security to those vulnerable low-income areas although more often than not, they eventually end up us extortion links. Another observation that was made by the Committee was that when people are remanded in our prisons, they use that opportunity to recruit others into those groups within the prison precincts. The Committee observed that politicians â not necessarily Members of Parliament because politicians include those who vied for political positions but never succeeded â also play a critical role in the propagation of these groups. This is mainly so during the campaign periods. One useful initiative that the Government has introduced is the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF). However, the Committee observed that the Fund has not managed to benefit the most vulnerable of the young and those who are likely to become candidates of these unlawful groupings. This is mainly because the Fund does not seem to benefit those who only have primary education or do not have any form of education. The YEDF does not, therefore, help those who are being recruited easily into these unlawful groupings. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the Committee observed that the unlawful groups thrive heavily on the transport industry. Here, they have managed to take control of matatu stages and they extort daily levies. This was clearly demonstrated to the Committee by the Minister of State for Provincial Administration and Internal Security. I have mentioned that some of these groups thrive because of political patronage. The issue of land has also given force to these groups. For example, there is the SLDF in Mount Elgon. Land issues are the main reason for the formation of this group. Land ownership is a complex thing in this country and it has also given force to these groups. This is because whenever there have been conflicts, one of the ways to solve them has been through the formation of unlawful groupings. I mentioned the issue of unemployment which was presented to us by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. However, these unlawful groups seem to serve as an engine for the poor to agitate for their rights and, perhaps, as a symbol of contempt for the rich or the system of governance that we have experienced in the past. They have been formed for purposes of expressing contempt against those who seem to have more than others in the country. The groups began by extorting money from the public transport over 11 years ago. However, recently we established that they have expanded their operations to big companies like the Kenya Bus Service (KBS) and Citi Hopper. They ask for fees from those companies on a daily or monthly basis. This has been encouraged by lack of clear bus termini in some areas. The groups have exploited this. We got information that the unlawful organizations charge protection fees at the rate of Kshs500 per day. Some of them charge Kshs40 per trip in very busy places. If owners of matatu would like to join a given route, they would be asked to pay between Kshs50,000 and Kshs100,000. The police, the City Council askari and the municipal askari were accused of undertaking extortion of some kind along the roads or within the bus termini. The unlawful groupings use this as a justification to extort money arguing that the police officers and the city council askari are on a payroll. If these officers extort money, why not them who are unemployed? Ex-police officers, ex-military officers or service men who have retired or have been sacked from the disciplined forces have also been useful in recruiting, training and offering logistical support to some of these groups in the country. In Central Kenya and other places, the Committee observed that members of these unlawful groupings have been molested and killed. In the process, some youth who do not belong to those groups but have been suspected to be members have been tortured or killed. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, there is an observation that the media has helped the growth of these groups. The reason we were given is that every time there is a heinous crime in some parts of this country, all those crimes have been assigned to those groups. The immediate blame is directed towards the unlawful groupings even before proper investigations have been carried out. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, one of major setbacks in Central Province is the economic setback in the sense that in some trading centres, you cannot operate after 6.00 p.m. At 6.00 p.m., you will have already stretched your luck. Some of the trading centres have ceased to operate because of the existence of these unlawful groups. The Oscar Foundation has been offering free legal services to the youth and poor families who have lost relatives in the hands of the police. We also observed that these groups receive some support from older people who think that they will help them fight for their land. Also in some slum areas, families have identified these unlawful groupings as the ones who will go out and look for something for them to eat. The unequal resource distribution was also one of the reasons cited as causing dissent or resentment within the community and giving force to these unlawful groupings. There is also the thought that these groups could end up being useful as a fallback position in the event that, that continued. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, finally, there was the issue of the girl child. In our country, the girl child has received a lot of attention but at times at the expense of the boy child. This was cited in quite a number of areas that we visited. There was a clear call that the boy child also should be given attention, but not at the expense of the girl child. There is need for attention to be shared equally among the two. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, quite a number of things have happened to us, as Kenyans, because of the proliferation of these groups. We are all aware that we have had properties destroyed across the country. We have now an increase in abuse and trafficking of drugs and the rise in crime. We have also seen political abuse of power because one thinks that he has a fallback position on these unlawful groupings. We have stunted investments as I mentioned earlier, youth delinquency, school dropouts, kidnapping and rapes. Generally, we have insecurity rising in our country. Collapse of the rule of law is something that was also observed by the Committee and the need to educate young people on the benefits of upholding the rule of law. There are benefits that will accrue to each and every member of the society when we appreciate what it means to uphold the rule of law. That was one of the things that the Committee thought was important and should be done. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the security agents also raised concern and complaints that the Judiciary has frustrated their efforts to fight these unlawful groupings because they have continued to release persons arrested on crimes that are related to these unlawful groupings. But it was also interesting to find that these unlawful groupings had their positive contribution to the society. One of the positive things that were cited by members of the public was provision of security services, especially in the low income areas and moreso, the slum areas where the security agents seem to have been absent. They have also been involved in resolution of disputes in some communities and especially on issues that revolve around land. In some cases, the groups have led to control of drugs and alcohol. It was cited that those strong adherents of Mungiki shun drugs or intake of alcohol. Those are some of the advantages or positive contributions that were cited by members of the public. It was also interesting to know that some of the groups have now mutated or moved away from criminal activities. For example, the"
}