On a recent post, “The Power to take a Life,” someone by the name Alan commented and asked why it is that people in Kenya lynch suspects whereas it has never been the case where he comes from, California, America. Whether Real or Rhetoric, It was a genuine question worth answering. But as I began responding to his question, I realized I had too much to put forth as reasons, and hence this post.
In the first semester of my third year in Egerton University, I studied criminology as one of my sociology course units for that semester. I was also lucky enough to be taught by one the leading criminologists in the country, who also happened to have current and hands-on knowledge on all matter legal and criminal in the country. This course mainly dealt with types and patterns of crime, why people engage in criminal behavior, and rehabilitation. It also dealt with institutions which are in one way or another related to crime, including but not limited to, the Judiciary, the Police force, and the Prison systems. From this class and from experience, I have come to understand that criminals and the latter three institutions have colluded in one way or another to exacerbate crime and consequently, mob justice by the public.
I will start with police. Ideally, our police, as mandated by their motto are there “To Serve and Protect.” However, they have since proved that they can only serve and protect their own interests. Badly paid and barely eking a livelihood, they have resorted to less than honorable ways of making their ends meet. If you are arrested by the police, guilt or innocence aside, you will be forced to part with some amount of money lest you end up in prison, for whatever they claim you committed. A more structured arrangement exists between our dear officers with criminals, whereby our police release these criminal elements granted that they share the spoils of the criminal activity. Our streets are thus laden with crime because criminals, like our politicians enjoy the impunity that is now abundant, for a price, within our borders. Furthermore, they pay the police better than the government ever will.
There are however also credible officers who refuse to be bought and who always ensure that arrested criminals are charged and prosecuted in a court of law. The problem with this process is twofold. First, our judiciary has a backlog that is years off, with no signs of letting up. As a result, there are people who have never been charged and who have remained in remand for years, even decades, yet they might be innocent. The other problem is that our prosecutors. The majority are usually police officers who undergo a crush course on prosecution for only 9 months, and are then thrust in to the legal arena, against fully fledged lawyers who have undergone a combined 6 years University education and Kenya School of Law. Our criminals, who unlike our prosecutors, are better financed hire goods lawyers and get off on technicalities.
There are those who have been prosecuted successfully and sentenced. They are then taken to our infamous crowded prisons. Our prison warders are the worst paid officers and whose housing structures are despicable, even by slum dwellers’ standards. These underpaid and overworked warders interact on a daily basis with millionaire criminals. The result has been unexplained but suspect prison breaks whereby prisoners collude with warders. For letting them walk, warders have a stake in several or all of the criminal returns from these fugitives. This arrangement seems to be mutually beneficial given the increasing number of prison breaks. The fugitives are never seen or heard from again, except in clandestine meetings with the warders, normally for payment or new business (arranging the escapes of friends and colleagues).
There are also other unclassified reasons which include those armed officers who are criminals themselves. There are also those officers who are not criminals themselves but lease their guns and uniforms to criminal gangs. Our magistrates and judges have also been known to release criminals for a fee.
For all those reasons, Kenyans grew tired of the same criminal elements terrorizing them to no foreseeable end. That is when the lynching and burning started, because nothing is as permanent as death. This may not be the answer that many would like to hear, and it is in no way a justification of mob justice, but there it is. Mob Justice also grants perpetrators impunity hence why it is unlikely to end soon. That is how we got to where we are now.
Alan. The reason that this kind of justice is not likely to happen in America is that our institutions are fundamentally different. It has been said that where leaders fail, we should turn to Institutions, but what happens when both fail? The unfortunate answer is that people resort to take the law into their own hands and a violent Death has since been seen and embraced as the sure cure for recidivism.
Thank you for the comment and question, and for stoping on this blog.
