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

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

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

“I did not feel anything, because I was high on drugs. I felt like I had killed a fly.”

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

He is visibly nervous. He has an AK47 in a hidden location that he now desires at hand in to the police.

Asked why, he says: “A day will come when my family won’t have anything to eat. They will get hurt eventually.

“If I go and mess around, and then get shot, no-one will be there to take care of my family. So I decided, from my heart, let me return this thing.”

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

Illegal firearms are smuggled into the nation by way of its porous borders, making Kenya’s civilian possession of weapons unrivalled in East Africa, based on the Institute of Security Studies.

The newest figures from the Small Arms Survey, which tracks international weapons developments, recommend there are some 750,000 firearms in civilian arms in Kenya. That is greater than the military and police mixed.

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

He was 15 when he first received into crime. It began with snatching folks’s baggage, 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 they agreed to just accept Samuel’s gun, promising he wouldn’t be investigated according to a well-established amnesty programme.

But 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 standard amongst younger folks in the slum areas of the capital, Nairobi, and makes use of his platform to talk out in opposition to gun violence.

“Upon my release, I discovered many of my friends who were involved in crime had met tragic ends, most of them dying as a result of their criminal lifestyles,” he says.

It was this that made him flip his life round.

“No-one is born a thief. But even if the youths don’t have work, we are telling them that crime is not good. People should return their illegal guns to the government,” he says.

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

Thousands of guns have been handed in to the authorities. But this can be a tiny fraction of the illegal firearms in circulation.

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

Kafu says folks keen at hand over their illegal firearms to the authorities fear they could grow to be a goal themselves.

The police have been accused of being concerned in extra-judicial killings. Kenyan charity Missing Voices says greater than 800 folks died at the arms of officers in the final 5 years. The majority of them had been poor younger males.

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

“I am ready to return it. You go and kill someone. You will spend the money you get for it within three months, but you have shed someone’s blood. You have hurt someone and been left with the guilt. That life is trouble.”

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

He describes what occurred to a good friend who confided in an elder in the neighborhood that he wished to give up two guns. He was picked up by the police and then present in a mortuary every week later.

“The problem is trusting who to tell, 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 man about his security and a number of 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 ensure the police repeated their dedication to holding these males protected.

“I want the government to be clear with the youth. When they return these things, will they be disappeared or supported? I am asking the government to cooperate. These youths want to be shown 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 fear of retribution.

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