Breaking News, Kenya, Africa, Politics, Business, Sports, Blogs, Photos, Videos�- Kenya militias turn into criminal gangs, pose threat

Breaking News, Kenya, Africa, Politics, Business, Sports, Blogs, Photos, Videos�- Kenya militias turn into criminal gangs, pose threat

Militias which perpetrated some of the worst violence in the last General Election have transformed into criminal gangs and pose a grave threat to the nation’s security.

Most of them are taking advantage of the community policing project to claim legitimacy as community-based vigilante groups, according to the latest monitoring report commissioned by the Kofi Annan-led Panel of Eminent African Personalities that negotiated the end to the post-election violence. Some 1,300 people were killed and another 650,000 displaced in the violence.

A move by the government to revamp the community policing project is reported to be yielding negative results. The project was revamped in 2005 and its budgetary allocation increased 20-fold to Sh84 million for the 2009/2010 financial year.

“Community policing through vigilantes is turning into a source of insecurity for communities. Illegal groups as well as vigilantes demand payment for security in poor neighbourhoods,” reads part of the report.