The Betrayal of Trust

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 How Power Has Fed Kenya’s Crime Problem 

I was walking down Moi Avenue on a sweltering afternoon in June when I saw them: groups of young men in torn jeans and bright bandanas spilling out of a white Toyota Probox. They weren’t protesters. They weren’t police. They were something else. In their eyes you could see a strange mixture of hunger and adrenaline. The look of young people paid a few hundred shillings to become weapons in someone else’s war. Armed with Jembe sticks, their intentions were clear, intimidate and possibly harm peaceful protesters, breaking in and looting people’s businesses, and convert a peaceful protest into riots.

In Kenya today, crime isn’t just happening in dark alleys. It’s happening in boardrooms, in county offices, in the corridors of Parliament. It’s happening wherever public money is stolen and wherever vulnerable youths are turned into political muscle. And it’s happening because, for far too long, those who should protect us have chosen instead to use us. 

When the State Hires the Street 

During the 2025 Gen Z protests, what was supposed to be a peaceful outcry turned into something uglier. I remember scrolling through my feed that night and seeing videos of young men looting shops, smashing windshields, attacking protesters. Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua went on record accusing Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja of bringing these mobs into the city under police escort. Interior CS Kipchumba Murkomen vowed to have “politicians who sponsor goons” arrested. Everybody was pointing fingers; nobody was taking responsibility. https://www.pulselive.co.ke/articles/news/local/murkomen-issues-orders-amid-resurgence-of-criminal-gangs-and-political-disruptions-2025040804154483296  

On the ground, it was clearer: boys barely out of their teens had been recruited at night meetings, given a small allowance, then told who to harass, where to stand, how to look scary on camera. It wasn’t new. Politicians have long hired gangs; in Kibera, Mathare, Mombasa, Nakuru, to protect rallies or disrupt rivals. But this time the mask slipped in public. Kenyans saw how fragile the line between “political strategy” and “crime” really is. 

The Quiet Theft That Feeds Desperation 

If goon sponsorship is the visible wound, corruption is the internal bleeding. Every time a tender is inflated or a budget misused, a door closes on a young Kenyan’s future. The infamous National Youth Service scandal was supposed to uplift youth through training and jobs; instead, hundreds of millions vanished through fake invoices and shell companies. The Tourism Ministry’s hospitality college, budgeted at $12 million, ballooned to over $66 million. Former minister Najib Balala was charged, but the pattern persists. 

These aren’t victimless crimes. They mean clinics without medicine, schools without teachers, roads half-built and abandoned. They mean graduates hawking sweets on the roadside, mothers skipping meals so their children can eat, fathers sinking into despair because another promised job program has disappeared.

SHA vs NHIF: Kenya’s Expensive Experiment with Our Healthcare 

When the government announced it was killing off the old NHIF and replacing it with the shiny new Social Health Authority (SHA), the pitch sounded almost too good to be true. We were promised a clean break from years of corruption and inefficiency, a bold step toward real universal health care. But to many of us on the ground, it feels like déjà vu – only more expensive. 

Setting up SHA hasn’t been cheap. Billions have gone into new offices, IT systems, boardrooms and perks for top officials. All that money could have gone into fixing NHIF’s messes – tightening oversight, digitizing records, protecting whistle-blowers – at a fraction of the cost. Instead, we now have an untested bureaucracy collecting higher, more complicated deductions from citizens who can barely afford fare to work, let alone mandatory health premiums. 

And what has changed in our hospitals? Not much. People still queue for hours, essential drugs run out, and patients are asked to pay cash up front for services that are supposed to be covered. Nurses and junior staff whisper about fraud but fear speaking up. Civil society groups and medical unions have already called SHA a “rehash of NHIF” – bigger budget, same old weaknesses. 

For ordinary Kenyans, it’s hard not to feel played. The State sold us a dream of affordable, quality care; what we’re getting so far is another layer of bureaucracy eating into our pockets. Unless there’s real accountability and a visible difference in service delivery, SHA risks becoming just another government project where taxpayers foot the bill and the promised benefits never arrive. 

Idle Hands, Easy Targets 

Talk to any boda boda rider, hawker or unemployed graduate and you hear the same story. “We voted. We waited. We got nothing.” With youth unemployment hovering above 35 percent, idleness becomes a breeding ground for manipulation. A local boss offers you 500 bob and a ride into town to “protect” a rally or “keep order.” What do you do when you haven’t eaten for two days? 

Research shows almost half of unemployed youth are pushed into crime by poverty. Theft alone makes up a third of all criminal cases in Kenya. And in the city’s shadow world, more than 300 organized gangs now operate, up from just 30 a decade ago, many with direct or indirect political links. It’s no coincidence. This is how state neglect becomes state-sponsored violence. https://www.the-star.co.ke/opinion/star-blogs/2025-04-21-wendo-kenyas-criminal-gangs-surge-demands-more-than-crackdowns  

Denials and Blame Games 

Every time a scandal breaks, the script is the same. An official accuses another. Investigations are launched. Denials follow. Sometimes a few aides are grilled; sometimes no one is charged. The news cycle moves on. The public grows more cynical. And the system stays intact. 

Even during the Gen Z protests, Sakaja denied involvement. Gachagua blamed police. Murkomen blamed politicians. Yet eyewitnesses, footage and the grilling of senior aides painted a picture of collusion. The rot isn’t a few bad apples. It’s the orchard. 

The Human Toll 

It’s easy to drown in numbers, but every statistic hides a face. In July alone, more than 60 people were killed during protest-related violence, some just children. Many more were arrested, some on trumped-up terrorism charges. Families are still looking for missing sons and daughters. I spoke to a young man from Kayole who had been both protester and “hired hand” at different times. “I just want work,” he said. “I don’t want to fight. But when you have no job, you do what you have to.” 

This is the tragedy: young Kenyans who should be building the future are instead being used to destroy it. The social contract, that unspoken promise between citizen and state, has been shredded. 

Why the Cycle Feels Unbreakable 

Corruption persists because the institutions meant to fight it are often captured or weakened. Prosecutors stall cases. Witnesses vanish. Whistleblowers live in fear. The police, supposed to keep order, sometimes protect or escort the very goons they should arrest. https://nation.africa/kenya/weekly-review/leaked-dpp-letters-reveal-how-corruption-cases-were-stopped–4762520  

Meanwhile, the gap between rich and poor yawns wider. Palatial homes rise behind electric fences while just outside, desperate young men mill about, waiting for the next politician to toss them a few coins. For some officials, chaos is useful. It scares opponents, discourages protests, and keeps citizens focused on survival rather than accountability. 

Voices From the Ground 

On Reddit, a Kenyan youth wrote simply: “We’re all exhausted. Yet somehow we survive.” That exhaustion is everywhere, in matatu queues, in campus dorms, in rural towns. Another voice, Gachagua’s, thundered at a press conference: “I had clearly warned of a plan … to unleash police brutality and thugs in police escort to kill our young people … This has come to pass.” Whether you believe him or not, his words echo a public mood of betrayal. https://www.kenyans.co.ke/news/113220-i-warned-you-gachagua-protesters-after-police-shooting  

How We Begin to Repair 

There is no magic fix, but there are obvious steps. Independent, transparent investigations into goon sponsorship and tender theft. A truly empowered and protected anti-corruption body. Whistleblower protection. Real, large-scale job creation programs — not token projects but serious investment in vocational training, manufacturing, and county-level enterprises.

We need policing reform that protects protest rather than criminalizing it. We need an independent judiciary that resists political pressure. We need an independent media and civil society free to expose what’s hidden. And above all we need fiscal transparency where every shilling traced, and every tender published. 

A Different Story Is Possible

Imagine if the billions stolen from NYS and other programs had actually gone to youth training. Imagine if the hospitality college had been built on budget and staffed properly. Imagine if police arrested goon sponsors instead of escorting them. Kenya would look different.

The young people in the streets today are not Kenya’s problem; they are Kenya’s chance. They are risking their safety to demand the country we were promised. The least we can do is listen — and act. 

Final Word 

Kenya’s crime problem is not just about muggers and burglars. It’s about betrayal at the highest levels. When politicians siphon money, when they arm mobs, when they criminalize dissent, they create the very lawlessness they claim to fight. 

But we are not powerless. We can demand transparency, support honest leaders, protect whistleblowers, amplify the voices of youth. We can insist that government power be used to build, not destroy. 

If we fail, crime will no longer be something that happens to us. It will be something we live inside. But if we succeed, Kenya can still be what it promises to be, a place where a young person’s hustle builds a future, not a politician’s army. 

-Kimathi

Kenya’s Current Political Situation: A Nation at the Crossroads 

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