Kenya: The government must stop extra-judicial killing in Gusii region ad ban SunguSungu

Commentary By Leo Odera Omolo In Awendo Town.

The re-emergence of the extra-judicial executions and killings of innocent in Kisii region must be put to an immediate end by the government.

It is disturbing and portrays our beloved Kenyan national as a failing state in the same category with some of ungovernable neighboring states. Our country has only one government of responsible men and women, and can ill-afford to see its citizens being recklessly slaughtered like wild animal almost on daily basis by a gang of criminals

Residents of Gussii region need the maximum security protection as the laws of the laws of the land stipulates that no one has the rights of taking away the precious life from another person except under the judicial process. But what is happening in the Kisii region cannot be ignored. The governments therefore need to act with speed to arrest the situation before it goes out of hand.

We do not have two governments in this country comprising of the ones who s summarily executing the suspected criminal s and the other one which prosecutes the suspect before the established courts of law. And from the looks of things that is what is happening in Gusii region.

The residents of the region are quick in attributing these killing as the work of an outlawed group calling themselves ‘SunguSungu vigilantes’..The group sprung up a decade ago and was hailed by the Provincial Administration was immediately recognized the Provincial Administration in the region. It was mandated to supplement the work of the regular policemen deployed in the crime prone region in suppressing criminal activities. But not to apprehend the suspect and execute them summarily before they were proved guilty of the offences with which they are charged with.

He strange thing is that while sanctioning the operations of the SunguSungu group to police the villagers and get rid of criminal elements within the society, the Provincial Administration erred for not having vetted the individual characters involved in this kind of risky operations. And no sooner did the complaints from the general public filtered in f the groups committing atrocities against the law a biding citizens.

The SunguSungu vigilantes youths exceeded their mandate of policing the villages, and turned out to be taking bribes under the pretext of settling family disputes, particularly on land, debts collection and being hired to settle outstanding contentious land dispute between the families, Such disputes always ends in the macabre killing of innocent people. Some of which have ended up in the summary execution of the suspect offenders, and even being bribed to kill unwanted neighbors and relatives by the economically powerful neighbors. The exercise painted the Gusii region in the wrong way as a place where one can easily find a group of hired mercenaries to eliminate his or her business rivalries.

A month ago residents if Kanyango village in Central Kasipul in a place located between Ruga and Rodi Kakuom markets, which are close to the border of Marani and Rachuonyo districts got a rude shock when they discovered the headless bodies of two well dressed young men laying before the roadside on the main Kisii-Oyugis road. The victim heads were also laying next to their bodies. It appeared as if the two men were killed elsewhere but transported and dumped to the place.

A week ago, the Kegogi village, which is located to the east of Marani district headquarters to the east and placed below the Manga Escarpment, was engulfed in a state of shock and mourning.

About 50 people armed with axes, machetes, rungus, swords, and guns stormed a funeral home where a committee charged with the responsibility of organizing the funeral plan for the burial of an elderly villages who was reported to have died a couple of weeks ago after being shot seven times by unknown assailants. The group dragged two selected people out of the meeting. And the next day their headless bodies were discovered by roadside the road near Miruka [Riochanda]market several kilometers away along Nyamira-Rachuonyo South districts borders.

According to the testimony of the eye witnesses a total of four young men were abducted on the same night and killed at different places. The victims were dragged to a deserted remote part of the villages where the summary execution took place. The killing was under the guise that the victim were the prime suspect in connection with the killing of the village elders..

One villager whose only crime is having come out of his house on hearing the commotion outside to investigate what was going on outside. His wife told this writer that about ten men accosted Mr Jeremiah Bogonko outside his hut and forced him back to the house. They asked why he went out and where he was going. The men using machetes smashed the family television set, and a radio. They pierced his clothes using machetes and asked fore mobile phones, which they took away and left with her husband whose headless body was discovered near Miruka on the main Nyamira- Kisumu highway.

The fact that these criminal gangs took away with them mobile phone handset and perhaps have put them to use makes it much easier for the police to trace these thugs and bring them to book. But so far no arrest has been made. The victim’s wife Mrs Eunice Nyaboke Bogonko narrated how she informed her father in-law about the abduction of her husband, and how the family had the sleepless night pondering about what would be the fate her husband night only to be told the next morning that his headless body had been discove5red far away from home. All these happened when the gangsters came and claimed they were searching for illegal guns which were used in killing the church elder of the Kenya Assembly of God Church Mzee Michael Onchong’a Nyakundi.

A Mr Pascal Gichana Onyiengo also of Kegogi village was killed in the same style, but in all these cases, the villagers says the police did not appear anywhere for the next twenty four hours, though these places are so close to Kisii Town and Marani, which is the ne district headquarters for Kitutu Chache.

Has the government abdicated from its responsibility of protecting its citizens? If not so then why has it placed its citizen under the extreme danger of being killed by night gangsters with impunity?. It is moderately being estimated that close to 200 people have lost their precious lives in Gusii region in the last three years in similar circumstances. Some of them victims died on suspicion they were witches or practicing witchcrafts’ other died on mere allegations that they were involved in unproven criminal activities.

The signs that business rivalries is also playing part in these killing is the destruction of business premises in Suneka market in Bonchari whose owners were suspected of criminal activities. Some double storey building were vandalized beyond repair by the enrage youths

It is time the government restore sanity and security of its citizens in Gusii region by banning the illegal activities of SunguSungu vigilante groups which have made the life difficult for the residents.

Ends

leooderaomolo@yahoo.cim

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