The Evil Within: Puzzle of Nakuru criminal gangs operating in residential areas

For a long time, the government in its fight against crime has focused its energies on rooting out criminal gangs which are assumed to operate with impunity.

And as the fight intensified within the town centres, the gangs and their activities kept on changing in form and shape.

Currently, the threat of the criminal gangs appear to have moved to the estates where cases of muggings, robberies, burglaries and drug dealings have become rampant.

Members of the public have been raising concerns over the alarming surge in criminal gangs operating in the residential areas terrorizing the estates.

Different gangs are now controlling specific estates which they have set base in.

Cases of retaliatory attacks between the rival groups which on many occasions have turned tragic have become a common phenomenon in Nakuru county.

For instance, areas of Kivumbini and flamingo / Kivumbini and Rhonda have been associated with confirm gang while the ones in Kapkures in Nakuru are linked to the Mauki gang.

The said criminal groups have gone ahead to defy and redefine new codes making them very unpredictable and posing a risk to members of the public.

For instance, the residents from the estate which are perceived to be bases for the gangs are currently bearing the brunt of the criminal gangs since they have become the easy target of attack by the gangs.

This is however contrary to their traditional norm and code where the gangs did not harm the people in the neighbourhood.

In the new evolution of crime, we are seeing more women and girls joining the criminal gangs and actively participating, taking the front role in running the criminal gangs.

Drugs and substance abuse appears to be the vice that is pushing the girls into the gangs while grown up women are interested in running illegal businesses.

In this regard you will find children engaging in criminal acts such as mugging, theft and drug abuse while the women are interested in controlling a specific region in the market.

The availability of drug peddlers in the estate has contributed greatly to more young men and women engaging in crime.

Areas such as Kaptembwo and Barut are battling with cocaine and bang abuse as well as illicit liquor.

The gangs have come up with ingenious ways to support themselves including peddling bhang and cocaine.

And to make the matter worse, some of the gangs are hiding in other professions which makes it difficult to notice or suspect them.