By Professor Hamadi Iddi Boga
THE YOUTH GANG CULTURE FROM HARLEM TO KWALE: A SOCIAL PHENOMENON DRIVING CRIME IN URBAN SETTLEMENTS
My neighbor back home was a victim of a panga attack by a youth gang who were robbing a small shop just a few meters south of Romika Shoe Company. He describes a horrifying encounter with about 30 youths.
The specific one who slashed his arm as he tried to fend off a blow to his head was aged around 25-26 years.
Their weapons of choice were pangas and stones. That evening they robbed the shop and its clients, a nearby small pub and its revelers, and had earlier raided another drinking den (mangwe), again robbing people of cash and mobile phones. He describes a terrifying, near-death encounter with the dreaded youth.
Youth gangs are creatures with global occurrences. They are everywhere, from the US, Brazil, to the UK.
In Kenya, they are everywhere, from Ukunda to Mombasa to Kisumu (Kondele) to Kibera, Mathare, and Mukuru Kwa Njenga. Just to reinforce this point, let me share a few quotes from literature about youth gangs:
This quote is about the situation in the USA.
“Since the mid-20th century, gang violence in this country has become widespread—all 50 states and the District of Columbia report gang problems, and reports have increased for 5 of the past 7 years. Despite the steady growth in the number and size of gangs across the United States and the criminal behavior and violence they spawn, little is known about the dynamics that drive gangs and how to best combat their growth.” (www.youth.gov)
This quote is about youth gangs in Latin America:
“Youth gangs are among the main features of the new landscape of violence in Latin America and the Caribbean. Whatever the name they are known by—pandillas, maras, bandas, galeras, quadrilhas, barras, chapulines—they are ubiquitous throughout the region and are recognized as a serious social development problem by all levels of society.” Dennis Rodgers (1999).Microsoft Word: Paper-4.doc (lincolngoldfinch.com)
A quote from Asia-Indonesia:
“These youth street gangs express a powerful identity in the present and in the future. Such an identity is based on notions of territory, honor, respect, fear, and norms of solidarity. This symbolism is rooted in past accounts of collective male violence and banditry and refers to the deeds of local strongmen known as the Jago (literally “cock” or “rooster”)”. Youth Gangs and Streets in Surabaya, East Java: Growth, Movement, and Places in the Context of Urban Transformations (researchgate.net)
Youth Gangs in South Africa:
“Cape Town is essentially two cities. One is beautiful beyond imagination on the slopes of Table Mountain; the other is one of the most dangerous cities in the world, where police need bullet proof vests and sometimes army backup. Here gangs of young men rule the night with heavy caliber handguns, defending turf for drug lords, dispensing heroin, cocaine, crystal meth, cannabis, and fear.” Gangs and youth—Insights from Cape Town—Understand—SaferSpaces.
Youth Gangs in Kenya:
“Research findings show that the leading counties each with at least 10 groups are: Nairobi (52), Mombasa (43), Nakuru (25), Bungoma (23), Kisumu (19), Kakamega (16), Kwale (15), Kilifi (14), Siaya (12), Kisii (12), Busia (11), Narok (10), Homabay (10), Isiolo (10), Garissa (10), and Nyeri (10). County Commissioners and their line officers, together with other security agencies in these counties, need to make the issue of organized criminal gangs a standing agenda in their security committee meetings.” Issue-Brief-on-Stateof- Organized-Criminal-Gangs-in-Kenya.pdf (crimeresearch.go.ke)
Coming back to my neighborhood, youth gangs have been proliferating in Kwale over the last 10 years.
They have become more visible and more violent, especially around Ukunda and its neighboring villages. As the situation evolves, there has been a raging debate about the cause of this phenomenon, its drivers, and how to tackle the menace. It has been blamed on broken and permissiveness within families, laxity within communities and neighborhoods, breakdown or absence of community policing, corruption, especially among law enforcement agencies, and interference with the juvenile justice system by parents and politicians, among many other reasons.
From my observations, most of the time these kids target local businesses, weddings, football matches, and local markets, especially during riots, and are at times mobilized by politicians to settle scores with perceived opponents or attack demonstrators. Youth gangs have become a serious problem in certain parts of Kwale (Ukunda, Diani, Shamu, Mbuwani, Kombani), and yet there is no clear plan to address this growing problem.
There are a lot of blame games going around, but no viable solutions are being proposed. Out of
frustration, some have suggested that communities should start dispensing mob justice and vigilante groups loosely defined as community policing, but these have the potential to themselves evolve and spiral out of control as neighborhoods degenerate further into lawlessness. There are also proposals of shoot-to-kill and other extrajudicial processes by police, which are, in my view, a case of treating the symptoms. Throwing the law out of the window and resorting to extrajudicial processes is not an option.
As we disagree on the best approaches, the need to seek a long-lasting solution to the matter has never been more urgent, as people are maimed and property is lost. Diani is the leading tourist destination in Kenya, indeed Africa. With the tourism sector recovering from the effects of Kaya Bombo, 2007 postelection violence, Al-Shabaab-inspired terror, and COVID-19, now is not the time to allow social disintegration through the proliferation of youth gangs. Those who bear the biggest responsibility in Kwale must find the wisdom and the vision to address the root causes of this social phenomenon.
A lasting solution will not come from more killings, vigilante groups, extrajudicial processes, or profiling communities and blaming parents. Ninety (90%) percent of our children are okay, and they are going on with their education in schools and colleges, and they are raised within the same communities. After all, Kassim Mwasalaba and Bakari Vumbi grew up in Kibundani, and they turned out okay. Leadership and vision are what are required to tackle and minimize or end this problem once and for all. Kwale urban centers need re-planning and renewal, and this will not happen on its own.
Hamadi iddi Boga is a professor of Microbial Ecology. He is currently the Vice President in charge of Program Delivery at the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). He is for principal secretary of the State Department of Agricultural and Crop Research. He is a professional with nearly 30 years of experience as a Scientist, Academic, and Government Technocrat.
