The Kenyan ex-con, illegal guns and the fear of police

As Kenya struggles with rising violent crime, BBC Africa Eye follows one former legal as he tries to influence males to show of their unlawful firearms, one gun at a time.

“The worst factor I ever did was to kill. I killed a person,” the younger man says after agreeing to be filmed on situation of anonymity.

“I didn’t really feel something, as a result of I used to be excessive on medicine. I felt like I had killed a fly.”

Samuel, which isn’t his actual title, is in Kisumu on the sting of Lake Victoria within the west of Kenya, to fulfill King Kafu, a former convict who now helps folks get away from crime.

He’s visibly nervous. He has an AK47 in a hidden location that he now needs at hand in to the police.

Requested why, he says: “A day will come when my household received’t have something to eat. They are going to get damage finally.

“If I’m going and fiddle, after which get shot, no-one might be there to handle my household. So I made a decision, from my coronary heart, let me return this factor.”

Figures from the Kenya Nationwide Bureau of Statistics present violent robberies elevated by nearly 20% final 12 months.

Unlawful firearms are smuggled into the nation by its porous borders, making Kenya’s civilian possession of weapons unrivalled in East Africa, based on the Institute of Safety Research.

The most recent figures from the Small Arms Survey, which tracks world weapons tendencies, counsel there are some 750,000 firearms in civilian fingers in Kenya. That’s greater than the military and police mixed.

Kafu acts as a intermediary between individuals who need to hand of their weapons and the police.

He was 15 when he first obtained into crime. It began with snatching folks’s luggage, however then he moved on to armed robberies.

In 2003, he was sentenced to 4 years in jail for theft.

Samuel had contacted him on Instagram asking for assist. Kafu spoke to the native police in Kisumu and so they agreed to simply accept Samuel’s gun, promising he wouldn’t be investigated in keeping with a well-established amnesty programme.

However when it was time to fulfill up once more with the AK47, Samuel didn’t present up.

Kafu, now 40, is a presenter on Ghetto Radio, a station well-liked amongst younger folks within the slum areas of the capital, Nairobi, and makes use of his platform to talk out in opposition to gun violence.

“Upon my launch, I found lots of my mates who have been concerned in crime had met tragic ends, most of them dying on account of their legal life,” he says.

It was this that made him flip his life round.

“No-one is born a thief. However even when the youths don’t have work, we’re telling them that crime just isn’t good. Individuals ought to return their unlawful weapons to the federal government,” he says.

Within the final 20 years the Kenyan authorities has used amnesties as a means of controlling gun crime, promising immunity to those that give up their weapons.

Hundreds of weapons have been handed in to the authorities. However this can be a tiny fraction of the unlawful firearms in circulation.

One legal advised BBC Africa Eye that buying a gun in Kenya was simple. He stated he might purchase one for 40,000 Kenyan shillings ($300; £240).

Kafu says folks prepared at hand over their unlawful firearms to the authorities concern they could develop into a goal themselves.

The police have been accused of being concerned in extra-judicial killings. Kenyan charity Lacking Voices says greater than 800 folks died by the hands of officers within the final 5 years. The vast majority of them have been poor younger males.

In Nairobi, BBC Africa Eye goes with Kafu to fulfill one other man, who we’re calling John, prepared to surrender his gun.

“I’m able to return it. You go and kill somebody. You’ll spend the cash you get for it inside three months, however you could have shed somebody’s blood. You could have damage somebody and been left with the guilt. That life is hassle.”

John’s largest concern of going to the police was that one thing would occur to him.

He describes what occurred to a buddy who confided in an elder in the neighborhood that he wished to give up two weapons. He was picked up by the police after which present in a mortuary per week later.

“The issue is trusting who to inform, find out how to hand it in,” he says.

There have been widespread allegations of Kenyan police hiring and promoting firearms and ammunition to criminals. BBC Africa Eye put this declare to the police, however they didn’t reply.

Kafu known as the native police chief to reassure the person about his security and some days later they went to the police station along with the gun.

The officer checked the serial quantity on the weapon and it had a KP mark which is brief for Kenyan Police.

At a police press convention saying the return of the weapon, Kafu made a public assertion to verify the police repeated their dedication to preserving these males secure.

“I would like the federal government to be clear with the youth. After they return these items, will they be disappeared or supported? I’m asking the federal government to cooperate. These youths need to be proven some love.”

This alone is not going to cease violent gun crime in Kenya, however Kafu says it’s a begin. Criminals belief him, he says, and hopes he can encourage extra folks to give up their weapons with out concern of retribution.

“We are attempting to battle for these youths,” says Kafu.