Police need to be awake for the Mombasa gangs to be afraid

Two related events took place in Mombasa this past week.

One is the daylong stand-off between members of a notorious criminal gang and the Kenyan security forces in Bamburi, Kisauni constituency.

The other is the ransacking of the palatial home of Ali Punjani, a Kenyan of Pakistani origin, allegedly involved in the transnational drug trafficking business.

It is not the first time members of these criminal gangs were slashing Mombasa residents like grass, neither was it the first time the Kenya Police were rushing to the scene of a crime to say those sweet things Kenyans would love to hear whenever they’ve been caught flat-footed.

When you take up a machete and stand on a public road, extorting innocent passers-by for money you did not work for, it should be clear that you are flirting with death because the Kenya Police is not your deskmate who begs you to stop whatever you are doing every time you open your locker to begin disturbing the peace.

RESPONSE TIME

The moment you begin slitting people's throats with military-grade knives for refusing to give you their mobile phones, you should be aware that you have already parted ways with your innocence, and there's no reason why the Kenya police shouldn't step in to remind you where the prisons kitchen is for you to go chop weevils there.

In any normal society where the government is awake and crime is afraid, those dragon-eyed boys running amok in Mombasa would never have touched even a strand of hair on anyone’s head before getting a dose of their own medicine.

Just last week, a lone gunman opened fire in a busy street in Dayton Ohio and it took American police officers a mere 30 seconds between the terrorist’s first shot and the police knocking him out.

Thirty seconds is precisely the time it takes for a mosquito to buzz in your ear before you land a reactionary slap.

It will take you 30 seconds to push a bolus of ugali down your slippery throat before your Adam’s apple salutes the new arrival.

VIGILANCE

If you’re suffering an irritating bout of hiccups, you need a 30-second waiting period before you can be certain it has stopped.

Thirty seconds is shorter than a bald man’s hair.

When you hear people say that they are afraid of the government, it is because the government’s arm is supposed to be longer than a boring history lecture and keener than a freshly sharpened knife.

The intelligence services in this country are supposed to be more vigilant than a cat timing cream.

You shouldn’t be able to push drugs from your kitchen to your bedroom without the cockroaches inside your house pinging a signal to Vigilance House and have the forces knocking on your door.

When the government does more and talks less, public confidence in our institutions grows and the goodwill to love our country is automatically gained.

MODELING

Those boys started terrorising Mombasa residents when Thika superhighway was still a road and Uhuru Kenyatta was still in the opposition.

What it takes other countries to finish in 30 seconds, the Kenya police has been marking time with. It is no wonder no country in the world can beat us in a marathon.

When you respond to criminal violence with the humility of a pie, there is only one person believing in your capacity and it isn't the overconfident young man taking selfies with a shining machete waiting to shed blood right under your nose.

The fact that our children aren't asking us the tough questions doesn't mean they aren't watching these things.

When you let people commit crime and shove it in our faces, you give the scary impression that crime does pay and, before you know it, our children will begin scoffing at those lofty virtues we teach them in religious school.

There is no use changing the education curriculum if we are going to keep letting crooks be the face of personal achievement while honest Kenyans remain the poster image of historical injustice and systemic oppression.

IMPUNITY

If children the age of a housefly can terrorise an entire county without anyone going to greet them, then the writing on the wall is clearly marked that impunity is the name and hide-and-seek is the game.

The Kenya police needed not wait for Mombasa residents to jam their radio frequency with distress calls for them to activate their springs and run after those mongrels.

If you're going to wait for Kenyans to be senselessly butchered before cracking down on runaway crime, then we might as well change the law and place the police under the Department of Fire Fighting.

Kenyans appreciate the noble role the police play in the maintenance of law and order.

However, there is a need for the police to ask for help whenever they’re overwhelmed, because, as it is now, there are higher chances of Mike Sonko deleting his WhatsApp chats than the Kenya police finishing the Mombasa deadly gangs.

Mr Oguda comments on topical issues; gabriel.oguda@gmail. com