Kenya is witnessing a dangerous resurgence of criminal gangs and the truth is that this is a result of policing failure and political complacency. The National Crime Research Centre’s latest findings make for grim reading.
In their latest report, they mapped 309 criminal gangs across the country, with Mombasa topping the list at 73 gangs, followed by Nairobi with 56 and Kilifi at 47. Kisumu is among the counties where gang activity is rising. These are not abstract figures; they are a mirror held up to a state that is shrugging at its most basic duty of protecting its people.
In Mombasa, the menace is no longer sporadic. It is systemic. Panga-wielding groups and notorious outfits like Wakali Kwanza and Wakali Wao have terrorised communities in Kisauni, Likoni and beyond.
Residents live with the dread of brazen, daylight attacks, while gangs extort, rob and maim with chilling impunity. This is not new. It is a problem that has festered for years while security agencies talk tough and deliver little.
In Nairobi, the story is equally stark. Eastlands neighbourhoods have long battled outfits like Gaza, a gang whose footprint and brutality have been documented repeatedly. These groups feed on police gaps such as slow response, shallow investigations and compromised patrols. The net effect is that ordinary citizens shoulder the risks of a city sliding toward normalised insecurity. Recently, in the central business district, Nairobians were attacked and robbed of their property in broad daylight.
Police, who have once again this year ranked as the most corrupt institution in the country, are busy exploiting and stealing from Kenyans instead of protecting their lives and property. When Kenyans say the police response is poor and corruption is rife, they are right.
In Kisumu, residents have faced waves of violence linked to outfits such as 42 Brothers, China Squad and American Marines. These are gangs that thrive in periods of political heat and on the oxygen of lax enforcement.
Authorities acknowledge the resurgence, yet arrests and press conferences have not translated into sustained security. Instead of taking action to put an end to insecurity, police only issue empty threats and do nothing.
The return of criminal gangs is an open and clear policing failure. The Kenya Police Service is mandated to deter, disrupt and dismantle criminal enterprises. Instead, we see reactive raids, performative roadblocks and short-lived crackdowns that scatter gangs for a week and embolden them for months.
Communities report paying protection fees, watching as public transport, informal trade and even neighbourhood security are infiltrated by criminal networks.
When 309 gangs are openly mapped, you cannot argue that this is a resourcing issue alone. It is a leadership and accountability problem within stations, within regional commands and at Vigilance House. “Utumishi kwa Wote” has become “Utu Missing Kwa Wote”!
Blame also falls on the Cabinet Secretary for Interior. The CS is too often on the political stage rather than in the command room. Security management is not about cameras and social media posts. It is about disciplined, intelligence-led policing, relentless prosecution pipelines and community protection plans that actually work. While the CS politicks, gangs recruit. While the CS trades barbs with opposition politicians, families bury loved ones. We do not need lectures on patriotism from a ministry that cannot guarantee a child’s walk to school or a trader’s ride home.
To save the situation, we must immediately find the root cause of criminal gangs and uproot it from below. To start with, hit the money and extortion rackets in matatus and markets, drug corridors at the Coast and protection schemes in estates.
Disrupt financing and logistics, not just foot soldiers. This should be coupled with intelligence-led targeting of gang economies by building cases with financial records, call data, forensics and victim protection. Fast-tracking of gang cases in designated courts will be crucial so that witnesses are not left exposed and demoralised.
Another important step in defeating criminal gangs is cleaning the police from within. The authorities must root out officers who tip off gangs or monetise crime scenes. Without internal integrity, every other reform is theatre. There must be operational accountability for police commanders.
Promotions should be tied to tenure, which translates to reductions in gang incidents, not public relations exercises. Where gangs are proliferating, commanders should be redeployed or removed.
Finally, there must be real community – police partnership. The police service must invest in credible community policing forums, youth diversion programmes and survivor support. When residents trust the police, gangs will lose oxygen.
Our constitution is clear in Article 29, which guarantees every person the right to freedom and security of the person, including the right not to be subjected to violence from public or private sources or to be treated in a cruel, inhuman or degrading manner. This is not aspirational language. It is binding law. The state does not get to cherry-pick when to be serious about security.
As Kenyans, we must demand that the Government of Kenya honour that constitutional promise. Stop the politics. Do the work. Dismantle the gangs, prosecute the profiteers and protect the public. Security is not a favour; it is a right.
Human rights activist, lawyer and CEO of @VOCALAfrica
