A NEW WAVE OF CRIME OF CHILD KIDNAPPING IS THE LATEST DANGER WHICH IS SENDING SHOCK-WAVES TO URBAN FAMILIES.

News Analysis By Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City.

Kenya is an African nation which is prone to all sorts of serious and organized crimes such as the bloody cattle rustling, bank robberies, politically motivated assassinations, tribal land clashes and ethnic armed conflicts, which at times pitting only member of the same tribe against their neighbors.

The latest such skirmishes could be traced to inter-clan full scale war between the Nyabasi and Buirege in the newly created Kuria East district. The bloody war forced the government to dispatch a contingent of the crack paramilitary unit, the dreaded General Service Unit {{GSU}.to the area a couple of weeks ago.

The on-going Mungiki sect massacre of villagers in Kirinyaga and Nyeri districts, which has claimed close to 50 lives within the last two months are some of the examples portraying Kenya as a nation in crisis.

All the warring groups pitting the dreaded and outlawed Mungiki sect and a group of vigilante youth masquerading as the local community policing the villages. Both side have suffered causalities almost of the same number of people hacked to death with crude weapons. And strangely enough, all the combatants are members of one tribe, the Kikuyus.

And in the Mt. Elgon district in Western Province, close to 200 people were killed last year by the rebels of the People’s Land Defense Army. The situation became so worse to an extent that the government had to deploy the Kenya army to restore law and order, The fragile peace has since returned to the region, but many people are still staying from their homes and villages in fear of being attacked, though the rebels seemed to have been crushed and destroyed.

This time around Kenya has added to its long list of serious crimes, the new waves of child kidnapping and thereafter the demand for huge sums of money in ransom for the safe return of the victims.

The amount of money demanded by kidnappers is too colossal and beyond the riches of the common Kenyan families. The kidnappers are targeting school going children. Many families living and working in urban areas and cities like Nairobi, Mombasa .Kisumu, Eldoret, Nakuru and even smaller towns like Nyeri, Kisii, Machakos and Kericho are no longer safe places for young children to walk alone to and from schools.

The fact that these kidnappers had the gut of sending an SMS to a government Minister warning her of an impending plan to have her daughter kidnapped tells a million stories. The MP for Kasarani, Ms Margaret Onoro, one of the Nairobi suburb constituencies was forced to dash to the school last week to ensure that her child was safe. The Ministers and MPs are all provided with armed security police details for their own safety.

In most cases the victim families are believed to have handled ransom cases quietly and secretly and had their loved ones released unharmed. This has happened in Mombasa, Nairobi, Kisumu and in other towns and urban areas.

Child theft is an old culture with African families, especially the barren women. But it used to be done in a small way, mainly by stealing infants from the maternity wards at childbirth or grabbing herds boys while grazing their family animals in the grazing fields. But such incidents were isolated and remote.

In the latest shocking incident, the gangsters used an AK 47 assault rifle injuring a neighbor who drove to the scene of the kidnapping that left a Nairobi family in grief.

A Nairobi daily, the DAILY NATION described the crime was no longer the preserve of movies when a 15 year old boy, Eugene Nelson Mandela Ochieng’, was kidnapped on Monday morning in a bizarre crime which is rapidly takng its root in Kenyan society.

Mandela’s father, who is also sickling, narrated to the newsmen from his hospital bed where he is receiving treatment for kidney ailment how it happened.. He explained that he had left their residence near Saikia estate in the morning at about 5.45 am. He was in the car with his cousin, a driver and the son Mandela. He explained that his greatest concern when he was leaving their house in the morning for the City Center was to make it in time for the doctor’s appointment at the Upper Hill Medical Center for dialysis. That, however, was changed. Initially, he thought the occupants of a car which was driving from opposite direction were police officers, and he told his driver to unwind down the window. However the thugs led by one who was wielding an AK 47 assault rifle approached their vehicle and ordered them menacingly to lie down, even as the thugs frisked their pockets for valuables.

Mandela, the Form Two teenager at the Eastleigh Secondary School, his cousin and the driver lay down as his father pleaded with the gangster not to harm them. “We had just left our compound. This strange car blocked us and there three people jumped and ordered us to lie down.”, said the father. The gangsters made away with Kshs 13,000 he was carrying and dragged his son to their waiting car, as they demaned Ksh one million ransom for his safe return, and drove off in high speed. The gangsters did not tell them how to deliver the Kshs one million that they demanded as they drove off with the boy.

But while this was going on, Mr. Ochieng’s neighbor, who was driving out of the estate, was fired at by the gangster, seriously injuring him. Although the gangsters had made off with his son, Mr.Ochieng’ and others bravely went to the assistance of the injured man and took him to Nairobi hospital where he was admitted with serious gun wound.

By Tuesday afternoon, nobody had phoned the family to demand the One million shillings the gangster had said they want.

It was later reported that the gateway car was found abandoned in Dandora estate, and the gangsters and the boy had melted in the thin air.

Kenya police has issued a stern warning which is also some kind of good advice to the families which might fall victim of child kidnapping.

The gangster appear to target the children of the well-to-do families, those parents who drives huge fuel guzzling four-wheel Japanese state of the art vehicles.

Parents of school going children are the worried lots in Kenya. Another latest style of robbery is that of kidnapping motorist and then forcing them to visit their ATM banks account at night. It has worked well for the gangsters, but they usually end up with small amount of money, thus changing their tactics to that of child kidnapping.

ENDS
leooderaomolo@yahoo.com

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Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 08:54:54 -0700 (PDT)
From: Leo Odera Omolo
Subject: CHILD KIDNAPPING MENACE HITS KENYAN CAPITAL, MAKING A GREAT PANICK