Securite

100,000 reasons to be afraid

Story by DAVID OKWEMBAH and DOMINIC WABALA
Publication Date: 3/11/2007

There is one illegal gun to every 300 Kenyans, according to government estimates.

And it is these 100,000 illegal weapons which have facilitated the spike in crime and been used in the killing of many Kenyans.


Curious onlookers vie for a glimpse of the bodies of two suspected gangsters shot dead yesterday at Nairobi’s Outer Ring Estate after they reportedly carjacked a motorist in a saloon car. Photo/CHRIS OJOW
A Sunday Nation investigation in Nairobi revealed that there are tens of gangs which provide a deep and widening market for illegal weapons.

Guns for use in carjackings and robberies are readily available for hire and for as little as Sh1,000 in some parts of Eastlands, investigations show.

Police are aware that they can never win the war against gun crime unless there is a significant reduction in the amount of illegal weapons available to criminals.

Later in the week, more than 8,000 illegal guns will be set ablaze.

But there are problems with the licensing of firearms as well and all firearm licences are being evaluated afresh.

The illegal weapons problem is regional and not confined to Kenya. The executive secretary of the Regional Centre on Small Arms (RECSA), Mr Francis Sang, said: “A study done in sub-Saharan Africa indicated that there are more than 3 million guns in the region.”

But neither RECSA nor the government has carried out a proper study to establish the exact number of weapons in the wrong hands.

“We are now working with researchers from universities in the sub-region to help us quantify the number and how to tackle the problem”, the RECSA boss added.

But the problem is likely to be much worse and the numbers a lot worse.

An agency within the Office of the President, which is charged with the task of getting back illegal weapons, quotes a survey that indicated six per cent of Kenyans — that is 1.2 million people — had access to weapons.

About 4,000 weapons are properly licensed, and an unknown number are held on the basis of temporary three-month permits which the Firearms Bureau is no longer renewing.

The Kenya National Focal Point on Small Arms and Light Weapons, quoting the survey, said Rift Valley and Nairobi provinces have the highest concentrations of illegal guns. But the agency would rather not put numbers to the problem.

“There are many illegal firearms in Kenya. Putting a figure on it is misleading,” the national co-ordinator of the Kenya Focal Point, Mr Peter Eregae, told the Sunday Nation.

The agency said six per cent of Nairobi’s three million residents have access to illicit guns.

In Rift Valley, with eight million inhabitants, five per cent of the population have access to illegal firearms. The problem is more acute in North Rift where a 2003 study by a Nairobi-based non-governmental organisation estimated that there could be as many 137,000.

Kenya Police Director of Operations Mr David Kimaiyo described that estimate as “highly exaggerated”.

He said an operation to mop up illicit arms in the North Rift led to the recovery of 2,300 guns, mainly from Samburu herdsmen.

Mr Sang, former director of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), said the police recover an average of 1000 guns every year.

Mr Camlus Omogo of the Security Research and Information Centre (SRIC), the NGO that carried out the North Rift study, said the number of illegal firearms is on the rise.

“The conflicts in this region and robbery reports indicate illegal firearms have increased,” he said.

Another study by a Swedish organization a year ago estimated there were 1.3 guns for every three Kenyans. This includes legal and illegal arms.

The study could, however, not determine the precise number of illegal weapons.

The Focal Point boss said the main source of the weapons are conflict countries such as Rwanda, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Sudan, among others.

The Focal Point, a department in the ministry of Internal Security, said the demand for illegal guns was being driven by insecurity, cattle rustling and other criminal activities.

On March 15, about 8,000 illegal guns will be burnt at Uhuru Gardens, Nairobi.

It will be a significant day for RECSA because it marks seven years since the signing of the protocol on small arms.

Kenya, which has so far destroyed 12,000 guns, will be burning illegal weapons for the third time.

Through RECSA, which is based in Nairobi, Kenya is among the 12 countries drawn from Eastern Africa combating the use of small arms.

Countries which have destroyed guns in the past two years include Ethiopia (1700), Tanzania (7000), DR Congo (4000), Rwanda (6000) and Burundi (200).

“Proliferation of small arms in this region is tied to various conflicts,” the RECSA executive secretary

“It is meaningless for just one country to deal with the proliferation of small arms when neighbours are in conflict”, Mr Sang noted. He said it was from this viewpoint that Kenya initiated the establishment of RECSA. The RECSA boss said the regional body was trying to put safety measures in place to deal with the proliferation of small arms.

He said the organization had come up with the Best Practice Guidelines to address the problem.

He said some of the measures captured in the guidelines include control, seizure and destruction of firearms.

Mr Sang said RECSA was emphasising that all weapons recovered by member countries or those which are obsolete should be destroyed.

“If this is done, then illegal firearms will be reduced”, he noted.

Mr Omogo, a researcher with SRIC says proliferation of small arms has reached worrying proportions.

“Even a petty crime now involves a firearm”, the researcher says noting that this was a departure from the past where guns were used in bank robberies.

He said the destruction of guns reduced the firearms in circulation besides being symbolic commitment by the government to deal with the proliferation of small arms.

He noted that guns were easily available in the country with the AK-47 rifle retailing for up to Sh 20,000.

Mr Eregae said the Kenyan office was in the process of setting up an electronic database at the Central Firearms Bureau to ensure all guns given to various arms of government are accounted for.

Mr Eregae said Kenya was among countries that was sponsoring the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) to the United Nations general Assembly to deal with the proliferation of small arms.

The Treaty obliges states to refuse to authorize export or transfer of arms in cases where it would result in the violation of human rights or international humanitarian law.

He said RECSA had developed a training curriculum for law enforcement agencies on firearms.

The body is also encouraging each National Focal Point to establish a working relationship with members of the civil society to carry out advocacy and awareness