Girls and Guns;The Unexplored Underworld

They are generally known to be loving, compassionate, kind...all positive aspects of the human condition. However,this flattering proposition doesn't ring true for all members of the fair sex.Scores of them have been captured in compromising situations such as flaunting those luscious parts of their anatomy in those dark places.Such peccadiloes revealed through the unflinching eye of the journalistic camera have left those who subscribe to the tenets of Victorian prudery shocked and wondering aloud what has become of our women--some of our women as not all of womenfolk should be tarred with the same brush.

An aspect of effeminate moral buncruptcy that has been overlooked by mainstream media or achieved superficial recognition if any,is their involvement in an insidious underworld of gang culture.It is a dark world where sex,money,murder,revenge,drugs and blackmail are the in thing and reign supreme.Gang culture has since time immemorial been associated majorly with males and rarely so with females.It is thus a proposition that many may scoff at that young girls are gaining a foothold in this hideous shere of human depravity and to which they are introduced at a tender age.

I was able to gain access into this clandestine culture notorious for its ruthlessness by courageously calling on a female gang at their hideout in a Nairobi suburb. At first,I was hesitant fearing that the girls would turn on me like a pack of wolves in a fit of lethal rage, thinking that I was an informer and that my visit was a set-up. After considerable self-convincing,I set out on an unpredictable assignment;to gain an insight into a world far removed from the consciousness of society.

A maze of confusing alleyways in a squalid shanty town lead to an old and seemingly abandoned high-rise building visibly in dire need of meticulous renovation.My guide ,interestingly ,is a street urchin privy to the goings-on here. ''Are you sure of where you are taking me,'' I inquire from him in the semi-darkness. ''Of course,''he responds assuringly in Swahili, the language in which we talk to each other. He suddenly asks me to stop and wait until he shows up again whereupon he vanishes into the darkness leaving me behind struggling to keep my cool.

After what seems to be eternity, he reappears in the company of three girls one of whom appears to be clasping a pistol;a sight that sends shivers down my spine. I retreat in apprehension.''Don't be foolish,''the street urchin tells me. ''Tell them what you want. ''With much difficulty, I garner the guts to introduce myself to the trio who are all teenagers and I try to make a case for my mission here and why they should accord me their trust.Miraculously enough,the gang leader, Stacy (not her real name), buys my story and instructs her comrades to remain vigilant outside as she takes me inside a room dimly lit by a lantern.

With everything presumably secured my interview with Stacy starts in earnest. ''I joined crime in form three. Our male friends who introduced us to crime,would use us to entice potential targets into their traps. We would pose as prostitutes to lure men. After leading them into some dark places,we would alert the male gangsters to show up or in some case we would rob the lured men at knifepoint,'' she tells me. ''Unfortunately,our male friends were shot dead while attempting to rob from a supermarket.It is then that I formed my gang with some girls.''

Other than enticing targets, their other role was to provide sex to the gangsters and also to smuggle weapons and drugs into their hideouts. I ask her if they have ever been caught by the police in their illegal escapades.''The police treat us less suspiciously than they treat our male counterparts,'' she continues taking a long puff at her roll of marijuana and sips from a transparent tumbler what seems to be an intoxicating drink. Now they are involved in robberies,blackmail,extortion and smuggling of illegal drugs. Her gang has lost four members,all girls, who met their death while in a robbery. Soon,our interview is over.

Sarah (not her real name), a reformed gang member,shares a similar story.Her gang fell in a law enforcement ambush. The cross-fire that ensued claimed all her friends. She sustained serious bullet injuries.After serving a five-year sentence at the Kamiti Maximum Prison,she is now undergoing further training at a local rehabilitation centre.As I learn from her during our interview,she was introduced to gang culture by her friends at the tender age of sixteen years.She still bears the scars of her close shave with death. ''My parents were not at home and this made it easy for me to go into crime.''Her mom succumbed to shock after she(Sarah) got arrested while her dad disowned her. Her only family now is the rehabilitation centre where she is undergoing training.

The damning reality of teenage girls falling into crime is an indictment of society more so the family.Parents have an overraching role to play in stemming this tide.As I gathered from my investigation,most of this girls claimed that their parents were not always at home.It is therefore incumbent upon all parents to provide responsile parental guidance to their children to ensure that they do not fall into the trap of gang culture. The family is the basic unit of society and a broken family unit has the potential of spelling doom for the larger society.

On the policy front,the government and civil society must carry out a probe into this simmering crisis and come up with recommendations aimed at dealing with it comprehensively before it becomes a full-blown crisis.