Mombasa County has the highest number of criminal gangs, a survey has shown.
A survey by the National Crime Research Centre says there were 309 criminal gangs which are distributed across the counties variably in terms of growth in membership, spread across various counties, resilience and being most dreaded.
The distribution of the number of known criminal gangs across the survey counties was Mombasa (73), Nairobi (56), Kilifi (47), Garissa (31), Kwale (29), Busia (29), Bungoma (28), Machakos (28), Nakuru (27), Kisumu (22), and Kiambu (20).
The distribution of the number of criminal gangs that were believed to have rapidly grown in terms of membership in the last three years was as Mombasa (11), Nakuru (8), Kiambu (7), Garissa (7), Nairobi (6), Kilifi (6), Busia (6), Kisumu (6), Kwale (5), Bungoma (4), and Machakos (4).
The NCRC report says is widespread proliferation, persistence, and resilience of criminal gangs across multiple counties in Kenya.
The report says the proliferation and resilience of criminal gangs present a growing challenge to national security.
The gangs engage in criminal activities such as extortion, drug peddling and/or trafficking, robbery, and political violence, with far-reaching implications on the country’s development, a survey by the National Crime Research Centre says.
The survey on the proliferation and resilience of criminal gangs in Kenya was released by NCRC on Wednesday.
It said despite numerous government interventions, these groups continue to adapt, evade law enforcement, and expand their influence.
The survey examined the proliferation, activities, contributing factors, and mitigation measures concerning criminal gangs in Kenya and was undertaken in 11 counties including Nairobi, Mombasa, Kilifi, Nakuru, Bungoma, Kwale, Kiambu, Machakos, Kisumu, Busia and Garissa.
The number of criminal gangs that were believed to have their presence in other counties, that is, had grown in terms of expanding into other counties (as reported by at least 10% of the sample respondents) was distributed across the survey counties including Mombasa (5), Machakos (5), Kilifi (4), Kwale (4), Bungoma (3), Kisumu (3), Kiambu (3), Garissa (3), Busia (2), Nairobi (2) and Nakuru (2).
The number of criminal gangs that were said to be more resilient, that is, had been able to adapt, survive, and continue operating despite efforts to dismantle or suppress them (as reported by at least 10% of the sample respondents) was distributed including Mombasa (6), Kiambu (6), Busia (6), Nakuru (5), Garissa (5), Kisumu (4), Kilifi (4), Nairobi (3), Kwale (3), Bungoma (3) and Machakos (3).
The number of most dreaded criminal gangs was distributed across the eleven (11) counties including Garissa
and Nakuru counties had five criminal gangs each, Kiambu, Kisumu, Machakos and Kilifi counties had four gangs each, Mombasa, Nairobi, Bungoma and Busia counties had three gangs each and Kwale County had one most dreaded gang.
Further, the survey mapped a total of 309 criminal gangs that were known by name and distributed across the eleven (11) survey counties.
Of these gangs, 254 were each present in one county, 42 were each in two counties and seven were each in three counties.
The criminal gangs that were leading in terms of their presence in at least a third of the counties (that is, 4 counties) were Gaza/Gaza Family (in 8 out of 11 counties or 72.7%), 42 Brothers (in six counties or 54.5%), Wakali Wao (in 5 counties or 45.5%) and Panga Boys, Chafu/Squad Chafu/Gang Chafu and Mungiki (each in four counties or 36.4%).
The survey showed the gangs have permeated the security (90.8%), drugs and narcotics trade (70.5%), business and entrepreneurship (62.0%), public transport service (53.1%); political (38.7%), information and communication technology (31.1%), land and natural resources (22.1%), financial (20.6%); hospitality and entertainment (18.2%) and education (17.2%).
At least 82.3 percent of the overall survey sample respondents argued that criminal gangs had proliferated their localities.
“Key indicators of proliferation included frequent reports of gangrelated crimes, increased violence, and growing gang influence in youth groups.”
“The visibility of gang activities was rated at 87.6 percent, with Kisumu, Busia, and Bungoma recording the highest gang spread,” read part of the report.
Despite the overall perception of proliferation, 53.2 percent of the sample respondents noted a decline in gang numbers over the past three years, though Bungoma, Busia, and Kisumu counties recorded increases.
The survey found that criminal gangs in the surveyed counties had deeply infiltrated multiple sectors, expanded their criminal activities, adopted sophisticated operational tactics, and gained resilience through community complicity.
“These dynamics made gang-related crime a persistent and complex security threat. Criminal gangs were found to have permeated multiple sectors, with the most affected being security, drug trade, and public transport.”
The main activities the groups are involved in include robberies, assaults, drug peddling and murder.
Their operations were characterized by violent attacks and intimidation.
At least 84.6 percent of the sample respondents acknowledged complicity among local community members (drawn from peers, family members and larger community members) especially through failure to report crimes, offering protection and normalizing gang activities had contributed to gang resilience.
Another finding of the survey was that there was a complex interplay of socio-economic, cultural, and structural factors that contributed to the proliferation and resilience of criminal gangs under the dictates of demographic profiles of gang members, recruitment methods used, the motivations for joining and staying in gangs and the factors sustaining gangs.
The survey found that most gang members were young males with histories of substance abuse and limited education.
“Recruitment was primarily through peer influence, targeting vulnerable youth, and financial incentives.”
The key factors driving youth involvement included peer pressure, unemployment, drug exposure, and poor family support systems,” read part of the report.
The persistence of gangs was linked to peer pressure and influence; vulnerabilities associated with high unemployment and poverty, availability of illegal drugs, broken or poor social and/or family support systems, inadequate formal education among youth; political exploitation, community cultural and social tolerance of criminal gangs, underdevelopment and marginalization.
The report said corruption among rogue government officials, including security and law enforcement officers, inadequate social services, weak security policing of criminal gangs and poor coordination among existing criminal justice agencies also contribute to the menace.
Ready markets for stolen items sold as second-hand items, weak prosecution of criminal gang members and inadequately sustained youth empowerment initiatives are also key driving factors for persistence of the gangs.
Corruption within the criminal justice system and fear of retaliation further exacerbated the problem.
NCRC called for change of tact that, among others, incorporates a multi-faceted and evidence-based approach to combat criminal gang proliferation and resilience.
There is also need for strengthening law and order enforcement and criminal justice system responses as the gangs were found to be spreading to new areas and their illegal activities were both visible and frequent, thus suggesting that they were undeterred possibly due to some gaps in the criminal justice system.
The centre also recommended the enhancing positive community engagement and public awareness and addressing the socioeconomic enablers of recruitment and retention in criminal gangs.
It recommended the combating drug peddling and/or trafficking and substance abuse Illicit drugs and substances and strengthening political and security institutions accountability.
Further it recommended the enhancing technological and strategic security approaches and enhancing criminal reintegration and rehabilitation after-care programmes.
