• Shahbal, a business leader, said the government must also adopt strategies dealing with youth holistically.
• The best way to deal with the juvenile criminal gang elements is dialogue, says activist.
Image: JOHN CHESOLI
How best to handle juvenile criminals — ruthlessly or with tough love, dialogue and community involvement?.
One hundred thirty-two gangsters are on the Mombasa police's most-wanted list and on Friday they were ordered to surrender. Or be dealt with ruthlessly.
"We can't allow a few people to disrupt peace in Mombasa," county commissioner Gilbert Kitiyo told reporters after a security meeting on Friday.
The meeting follows a wave of violence that has erupted in Kisuani, Mishomoroni and Vikwatani areas of Kisauni subcounty — following the lynching of one of the gangsters by a mob, fed up with young criminals. The gangs stuck back.
Kitiyo said some of the criminals are as young as 14-year-olds.
The county commissioner blamed parents saying they have abdicated their role in raising their children.
Ruthlessness in protection of life and property is the greatest calling of any functioning government.Shleiman Shahbal, business leader
“They don’t talk to their children, they don’t give them guidance and they have left them to the world,” the commissioner said.
KenTrade chairman Suleiman Shabal said the government needs to be ruthless.
Speaking to the Star on phone, Shahbal said the national government needs to deal with lawlessness with full force.
“Ruthlessness in protection of life and property is the greatest calling of any functioning government,” he said.
Shahbal, a prominent businessman, said the government must also adopt strategies to death with youth's problems holistically.
“We must get to the bottom of socioeconomic issues affecting our youths and mitigate them,” he said.
However, commissioner Kitiyo said the government cannot provide jobs for all youth.
Parents, he said, must guide their children in making informed career choices and give hope to their children.
Joblessness has been cited as a major contributing factor to crime, though not everyone subscribes to this.
Tubonge Youth Initiative chair Delvis Njue said most parents have left their children to be cared for by grandparents.
Dealing ruthlessly is not working. It has failed. Young criminals persist. Some gangs even resurrect. The only way is to go back to basics where a child belongs to the community.Delvis Njue, Tubonge Youth Initiative
“It is like the parents have surrendered their children to their parents. It is hard for grandparents to effectively take the role of parents,” Njue said.
Njue, whose initiative tries to reform juvenile criminals, said "dealing ruthlessly" with criminal elements has been tried, tested and shown to fail.
“Dealing ruthlessly is not working. It has failed. Young criminals persist. Some gangs even resurrect. The only way is to go back to basics where a child belongs to the community," Njue said.
The best way to deal with the criminal gang elements, Njue said, is dialogue.
“Let society deal with the child. If they go wrong, society will correct them.”
He said lack of jobs is not the main reason children join gangs.
“Some of the criminals are juveniles who are supposed to be in school. What business does a 12-year-old boy have seeking a job? He is supposed to be in school,” Njue said.
(Edited by V. Graham)