The Standard Group Plc is a multi-media organization with investments in media
platforms spanning newspaper print
operations, television, radio broadcasting, digital and online services. The
Standard Group is recognized as a
leading multi-media house in Kenya with a key influence in matters of national and
international interest.
They are the new kids on the block who live by the gun to complement their heavy appetite for life on the fast lane, which revolves around booze, partying and sex.
They steal, rob at gunpoint and even kill over the slightest provocation in their pursuit for money to maintain a larger than life image, yet some of them are hardly out of school.
These are the teenage gangsters of Nairobi who define a reincarnated breed of amateur criminals thirsting for quick riches and the good life, no matter the price.
They operate in groups, each with distinctive identities while going about the business of callously robbing and harming within specific marked territories.
Interestingly, members of these gangs take time off to mingle and make acquaintance with each other during frequent parties, during which they project deceptive images of children from well-to-do families.
Thomas Warui Njoka aka Tomaso fits this profile - young, ambitious, outgoing and flashy.
Positive adjectives that paradoxically describe the new dangerous robber of Nairobi who could be your son, daughter, next-door neighbour, friend or close relative.
Tomaso was one of the three suspected gangsters shot dead in a police shootout in the city on August 17, 2014.
According to police, the five-man gang was about to hit a target when the mission was foiled.
Two managed to escape, and are on the run but still on the watch list of the Special Crime Prevention Unit (SCPU).
Tomaso’s gang preyed on people carrying large sums of money. “They have been attacking bank clients after they make withdrawals. They were trailing a businessman who was carrying lots of money,” said an officer who took part in the shootout.
A day after Tomaso's death, Facebook went on an overdrive with comments and photos of the alleged young criminals lying dead in pools of blood.
Many Facebook posts claimed criminals are on the prowl, wreaking havoc, while living in glamour, an unapologetic of the pain they cause and suffering they leave in their trail of violence.
From an obituary placed in a local daily, Tomaso, 21, comes from a middle class family. He was a week short of his twenty-second birthday when he was buried on August 21 at the Lang’ata Cemetery.
His father, a senior government officer, initially denied the slain man was his son.
“I am consulting my lawyer about the issue. Thanks,” he said before he hang up on this writer.
A source familiar with electronic security surveillance said the young criminals are introduced into crime during reggae jam sessions as teenagers.
He blamed parents for not bothering to monitor what their kids are up to during holidays and Sunday afternoons.
The teenagers flock into the CBD for jam sessions and while leaving at night, they divide themselves into groups of boys and girls, robbing unsuspecting members of the public.
Allegedly, a week before he was killed, Tomaso mourned the death of an accomplice, honouring him by replacing his Facebook photo with that of the slain young man killed in a fire exchange with police.
Some of the young gangsters are still high school students, allegedly attending classes while armed. They change into civilian clothes in the evening and transform into their more dangerous roles - that of heartless criminals.
Even though some come from rich families, a majority of these youthful bling bling gangs were born and bred in Githurai, Kayole, Dandora and Kawangware, among other low-income estates where families place more emphasis on wealth acquisition at the expense of education and morality.
Head of SCPU, Noah Katumo, admitted that most of the violent crimes in the city are perpetrated by young men who are hardly 20 years old. He cites the case of the young criminals gunned down in Kayole on September 2. Among the dead was a former female police officer.
“It is true that teenage criminals are on the rise in the city. The public should beware of such young men and women who are engaging in crime and volunteer any information on such criminals to the police. All information is treated with confidence,” said the detective.
