Kenya cannot end goonism without first arresting the politicians behind it
By Sharon Atieno, June 20, 2026Calls by leaders such as Senator Samson Cherargei that “all goons must be dealt with ruthlessly to avoid collapse of law and order in Kenya” may sound tough and necessary, but they fail to confront the deeper truth behind Kenya’s growing culture of political violence.
The real question is not whether goons should face the law. They should. The bigger question is this: who creates the goons?
For years, politicians across the divide have turned unemployed young people into political weapons, hiring them to intimidate rivals, disrupt meetings, attack protesters, and cause chaos whenever power interests are threatened.
In many cases, the same leaders who publicly condemn violence are the very architects financing and mobilising these groups behind closed doors.
It is therefore dishonest to focus only on arresting young men on the streets while ignoring the powerful individuals who recruit, finance and deploy them.
If politicians stopped engaging youth in organised violence, many of these so-called goons would disappear overnight.
Joblessness fuels recruitment into political violence
Kenya’s unemployment crisis has made thousands of frustrated young people vulnerable to manipulation. For some, participation in goonism has sadly become a source of survival, not because they wish to live criminal lives, but because economic opportunities remain limited.
If these same young people had access to stable jobs, skills programmes, and meaningful economic opportunities, very few would choose to become instruments of violence.
The country must therefore stop treating goonism purely as a policing problem when it is also an economic and political problem.
Youth must reject being used
At the same time, young people themselves must begin rejecting exploitation by political actors.
If leaders continue recruiting youth for violence, then those being used must collectively say no.
A generation cannot continue allowing itself to be hired to destroy communities, attack innocent citizens, and protect political interests that do not improve their own lives.
Murkomen links rising violence to organised political goons
The debate comes as Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen linked the recent attack at All Saints Cathedral in Nairobi to rising organised goonism involving actors across the political divide.
“Even as the country remains safe and secure, goonism perpetrated by actors across the political divide continues to pose a challenge, as witnessed in the recent unfortunate incident at All Saints Cathedral,” Murkomen said.
Following the June 12, 2026 attack that disrupted a civic forum organised by civil society groups, security agencies confirmed multiple arrests, with investigations still ongoing.
The truth remains simple: Kenya will never defeat goonism by arresting the foot soldiers alone. The fight must begin with the politicians financing the violence.