Interior Cabinet Secretary Dr Fred Matiang’i is a man under the camera now, as his next move to reign the carnage in Kakamega could make or break the legacy he has painstakingly built across government ministries.
Like all the Cabinet secretaries who dared to be different and hold their ground, Matiang’i could join the league of legends like Tom Mboya and John Michuki or be mediocre like current Kenya’s envoy to Tanzania and former Mining Minister Dan Kazungu.
The escalation of violent crime in Kakamega threatens to tear the Western county apart, with reports emerging that the criminal gangs are deeply entrenched, even involving children under 18 years.
The arrest of five children in Kakamega over the death of a 9-year-old boy has sparked a controversial debate on whether the security apparatus in the area is doing enough.
The minor was abducted last week and his mother had reported to the police about his disappearance.
What’s shocking, the mother reported that she had been called by his son’s abductors who were demanding a Sh50,000 ransom that she couldn’t afford.
Before long, the impatient abductors would stab the boy in the neck to death, after their demands were not met by the boy’s parents.
But even more shocking was the deadly abductors were aged between 16-18 year-olds already initiated into the criminal gangs.
The boy had just been released by his mother to attend Madrassa when he was abducted by the gang of criminal teenagers.
Kakamega County Police Commander Wilkister Vera told Citizen Digital that detectives were quickly dispatched and they got hold of the deadly teenage gang which then led them to the crime scene where the boy was killed in cold blood.
Upon reaching the scene, the gang had partially buried the boy’s body which had deep cuts on the neck.
This comes less than a week after a similar incident happened in the same County immediately after CS Matiangi and Inspector General of Police Hillary Mutyambai pored a contingent of GSU officers in Matungu to rid the area of gangs.
Ms Miriam Kaluki had her 7-year-old son, Malik Murunga killed in cold blood after going missing for days.
She admitted the boy had preempted her death and had even expressed confidence in facing his death.
“On the eve of the attack, my son had told me that he was not scared of death since he was at peace with God,” Ms Miriam Kaluki ( Malik’s mother) narrated.
Malik was to be found at an abandoned house with multiple stab wounds in his belly that had splattered his intestines on the floor!
He was to succumb to his injuries moments later as he was on his way to Kakamega County Referral Hospital.
This came after a spate of attacks that rocked Matungu leaving dozens of residents dead.
The government moved in with speed to arrest the situation, with widespread detentions of senior political figures in the area suspected to be funding the terror gangs.
The death toll in Mandera, in 2019 alone is nowhere close to that in Kakamega in Kakamega even with