Leading the Night

Gang power

Leading the Night 47 families. When they heard Deni singing her story, her song, they laughed and laughed all day long and into the night. They said they knew how these things that happened to Deni came to occur, but they did not know how to handle them. The snake dance of those who preferred material wealth to anything else had almost destroyed all hope. Helplessness grew. There were some who were described as ‘good officers’ but they worked within a police force infiltrated by gangs and corrupted to the hilt. It was bewildering, it was said some of the gang militia members were well educated. The gang had a philosophy which made sense to minds seeking for change. The knot choking the nation became tighter. Maybe it was the two snakes that were choking the country. Maybe the two snakes had given birth to many baby snakes. Nothing but fear was certain. Gang power The gang Leader and his helpers did not hide their identity and presence all the time but their members did. Like in all other powerful institutions in the world, they knew that information is power. Sometimes they allowed interviews and sometimes they did not. They would give information to journalists but always in a way that left the journalists more disconcerted than when they started to research on the morphing groups. Scholars published papers on the internet. University students began to write theses on the phenomenon. It was always hard to penetrate the gangs which now embraced other smaller gangs in different locations. The gang members dealt with information quite skillfully. It was their intention that nobody could feel they had complete knowledge of them. It seemed that they needed to have a mystery which confounded everyone and left their neighbours so confused that they would choose not to speak to their own children in case they were part of the gang. No one could be completely informed about them. A daring 48 Leading the Night documentary producer ended his productions with many questions. The gang made local reporters news robots and kept them down. At one time, even after having agreed to tell their story under false names, the Leader of the gang had insisted that some information he gave was not to be seen in print. One editor who had become a little bolder did not heed the Leader’s instructions. The Leader rang the newspaper using his full name and naming the journalist who interviewed them incognito and wrote the story under a pen name with all her three official names. The journalist had introduced herself to the interviewees using a different name. She even told them that she came from near Lake Turkana and not from the coast as many people in Kenya had assumed. She had no office tag on her. They played on and she thought she was unknown to the group. The editor would not hear of not using the bit of information the gang vetoed as he said it was the juiciest part of the whole story. It was about gang connections with Malindi at the coast where many in Kenya were settled. When her phone rang and the Leader called her by her three names, she knew she was in trouble. She was threatened. The Leader now called the office, the editors shivered with fear. The Leader insisted on speaking to her and he called the landline that had a strange tone. He spoke to her for only half a minute. He warned her to always do as the gang told her otherwise the consequences would be dire. He hang up. In a week, she was transferred to an un-named region in the country. Many young men were killed by police and were said to be members of the gang. Rika was not afraid of the gang. She was afraid of powerful persons who protected militias. Mystery and power were etched in every stone used to construct media houses. Reporters vowed to keep off gang stories. Mystery and power were etched in every home. Family ties were broken in silence. Mystery and world powers etched themselves in local Parliament and government. This to some was an invitation to more power. Mystery and power stood etched in the churches’ columns and Leading the Night 49 conerstones.There was a big fall out there- worship of Gold was adored over other forms of spirituality. Churches...