Lynchings in modern Kenya and inequitable access to … · Lynchings in modern Kenya and...

Lynchings in modern Kenya and inequitable access to basic resources:

A major human rights scandal and one contributing cause

Dr. Robert Guy McKee, Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics, Assistant Professor

Abstract: By reference to mostly Kenyan media data on a sample of roughly 1,500 persons re-

ported lynched from August 1996 through August 2013, modern Kenyan lynchings (1) are com-

mon, (2) are savage, (3) are for numerous alleged reasons (mostly for alleged crimes), (4) are

rarely prosecuted, (5) appear to have inequitable access to basic resources as one contributing

cause, (6) are a major human rights scandal, and (7) will, while they continue apace, hinder Ken-

ya’s development in the twenty-first century. Annual lynchings per capita have sometimes great-

ly exceeded those of the worst years of America’s recorded lynching history, with the Kenya Po-

lice reporting, for example, 543 mob justice killings for 2011. Lynchings are by numerous cruel

methods, rarely if ever by the historical American norms of hanging and shooting. Among al-

leged reasons for them are larcenies, murder, witchcraft (with greed for land sometimes alleged

behind witch allegations), rape, adultery, and gang membership—rarely if ever ethnicity or either

sexual orientation or gender identity. Part of the human rights scandal of Kenyan lynchings is the

recent downplaying in U.S. Department of State Kenya country reports on human rights practic-

es of shockingly numerous lynchings vis-à-vis comparatively few cases—none lethal—of dis-

crimination, abuse, and violence based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

1. Introduction

In the preface to his outstanding popular work At the hands of persons unknown: The

lynching of black America, writer-historian Philip Dray (2002) wrote, “Lynching, as everyone

knows, has always had a special power to make us want to look the other way” (2002:xii).

Whether or not lynching anywhere has any such special power, it is lynching that I want us to

look at in the present papera—and, more specifically, it is lynchings in modern Kenya. What I do

in the paper is make seven assertions about these lynchings, supporting each, more or less, from

mostly Kenyan media data and other published materials. The seven assertions are, that lynch-

ings in Kenya (1) are common, (2) are cruel, (3) are committed for numerous alleged reasons—

mostly for alleged crimes—but very rarely for reasons related either to race or to sexual orienta-

tion or gender identity, (4) are rarely prosecuted, (5) appear to have inequitable access to basic

resources as one contributing cause, (6) are a major human rights scandal, and (7) will, until they

become the exception rather than the rule, hinder Kenya’s development in the twenty-first centu-

ry. The great extent to which lynchings in Kenya are common, cruel, and not prosecuted explains

largely my judgment that they are a major human rights scandal.b I highlight that these lynchings

are very rarely for reasons related either to race or to sexual orientation or gender identity since it

is not a lynching’s motive, racial or otherwise, that makes it a violation of one or more human

rights; more simply, it is the bare denial of due process, the bare murder, and the other bare vio-

a I presented the paper’s initial version at the 73rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in Den-

ver, March 19-23, 2013. The paper session was S-102, Human Rights, Saturday afternoon, March 23. The confer-

ence theme was natural resource distribution and development in the twenty-first century. I thank Manfred Berg for

helpful comments on a late draft of the paper’s for-publication version. All copy-edits I note—for capitalization,

punctuation, and grammar—are my own. What faults the paper retains are my own. b The extent to which the paper focuses on human rights is a function of my having prepared its initial version for an

applied anthropology conference session concerned with human rights (see note a).

GIAL Special Electronic Publications 2013

2

lations involved. Inequitable access to basic resources as a contributing cause was a tie-in to the

theme of the conference for which I prepared the paper’s initial version, as was the assertion that

lynchings, until they become rare, will hinder Kenya’s continuing modern development.

The Kenyan media data that I cite in my paper—mostly from the Nation, Standard, and

Star newspapersc—are ones I have gathered off and on from August 1996 through August 2013.

This was, for twelve years, as a kind of hobby while I was resident in Kenya on other business;

then, from June 2009, it has been from the U.S. via the Internet. These media data concern

roughly 1,500 of the many more persons lynched in Kenya over that period. They are most com-

plete for February 2011 through August 2013, during which I searched the net almost daily for

lynching-related material. For as many of the data that I cite as I have found possible, I have pro-

vided links so that the data themselves can be examined. While I have not yet done enough with

a database to permit me to make any quantitative statements from my data, what I believe I am

indeed in a good position to do is to strongly include Kenyan perspectives on Kenyan lynchings

in what I say about them.

The paper is much heavier on ethnography than analysis. In any case, I do not pretend

that it does more than begin to scratch the surface of the anthropology of lynchings in Kenya. I

have revised and lengthened the paper some from its conference version. I do hope to follow the

paper up with a book in as many as several volumes, modeled in large part (and assuming I re-

ceive needed copyright permissions) after Ralph Ginzburg’s (1988) powerful 100 years of lynch-

ings.d

Not surprisingly for the attention it pays to human rights and development, the paper is

openly intended as advocacy anthropology. The advocacy is especially for Kenya’s poor, weak,

and defenseless, relatively speaking, which categories together—including the criminal poor—

make up the vast majority of the country’s lynching victims.

Before proceeding with the paper’s seven assertions, I start by explaining its use of the

term ‘lynch’ against a bit of anthropological and other scholarly background. Simply put, the pa-

per tries to allow Kenyan media uses of the term and derivatives of it (e.g., ‘lynched’, ‘lynching’)

to speak for themselves, with no effort to distill from them any Kenyan national-cultural defini-

tion. My sense is that Kenya’s media use the term much as it is defined by American and British

English dictionaries—viz., with a meaning close to “to put to death (as by hanging) by mob ac-

tion without legal sanction” and as exemplified in the sentence “The accused killer was lynched

by an angry mob.”e What appears to me correct Kenyan usage includes the elements of (1) put-

c The Nation and Standard I think of as Kenya’s two leading, national dailies; the Star I think of as third or lower.

Welsh (2010), a different kind of study of mob violence than mine, includes microanalysis that relies heavily on a

dataset of reports drawn from local (versus national) newspapers (2010:125, 142). It has been for lack of time to

devote to the task involved, not for any other reason, that I have not tried to gather data on Kenyan lynchings from

local as well as national newspapers. d After a brief foreword and a single prefatory quote, Ginzburg (1988 [1962], Baltimore, Maryland, Black Classic

Press) is composed of a series of chronologically-arranged newspaper articles about American lynchings and their

context (1988:9-252) followed by an appendix entitled ‘A partial listing of approximately 5,000 Neg[r]oes lynched

in United States since 1859’ (1988:253-70). As one of the first books that I read about American lynchings, I found

it powerful, highly educational, and greatly disturbing. e Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Thesaurus Online, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lynch. Four sim-

ilar definitions from other online English dictionaries are as follows: “to put to death, especially by hanging, by mob

action and without legal authority,” http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/lynch; “[t]o punish (a person) without

legal process or authority, especially by hanging, for a perceived offense or as an act of bigotry,”

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Lynch; “If a crowd of people lynch someone who they believe is guilty of a

crime, they kill them without a legal trial, usually by hanging (= killing using a rope round the neck),”

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lynch

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/lynch

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Lynch


3

ting to death, (2) by more or less of a mob, and (3) extra-judicially—i.e., without due process of

law.1 Where Kenyan lynchings clearly depart from American and British English dictionary def-

initions of ‘lynch’ is where any preference for hanging as the method is concerned, since Kenyan

mobs very rarely if ever employ that method (see below where I assert that Kenyan lynchings are

cruel).

Interestingly to me as an anthropologist, lynching may indeed, in some national and other

contexts, have a power to make us want to look the other way; otherwise, I have to work to un-

derstand the absence of any form of ‘lynch’ from the subject index of any of nine introductory-

level cultural anthropology texts that I have in my office library, or of the first ten such texts with

a subject index I could consult that I looked at recently at Amazon.com.f Given that some schol-

ars maintain that lynching presumes a modern state context (one recent example is Berg 2011),g I

can understand no mention of lynching in introductory-text treatments of pre-state social control.

What I cannot understand—not comfortably for American anthropology—is why recent post-

colonial lynchings—e.g., Kenyan theft-allegation and other lynchings from the 1990s, Indone-

sian keroyokan mobbings (including lynchings) from the mid-1990s through mid-2000s,2 north-

ern Tanzanian witch-allegation and other lynchings from the 2000s, or Papua New Guinean sor-

cery-allegation lynchings from the 2010s—receive no mention as mechanisms of informal social

control of the modern state, alongside such stalwarts as public opinion, corporate lineages, su-

pernatural belief systems, etc.h

Bohannan, ed. (1967), which is about (sub-Saharan) African homicide and suicide, in-

cludes among its brief case summaries some that suggest to me roots or foundation for some

postcolonial lynching in some pre-colonial African cultures. (The Bohannan volume, possibly in

agreement with those who maintain that lynching presumes the modern state, does not have any

form of ‘lynch’ as an index entry.) Fallers & Fallers (1967), for example, say the following

sandwiched around the last case summary they present:

We may appropriately end with a case which illustrates the uncertainty which is

often the consequence of change in society’s methods of securing order. “Self-

help” or “vigilante” justice is, as we pointed out earlier, not accepted in present-

day Busoga [southeastern Uganda, Bantu]. That is to say, any Musoga, upon be-

ing questioned, will insist that criminals should be turned over to the authorities

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/lynch; “(of a mob) kill (someone), especially by hanging, for an

alleged offense with or without a legal trial,” http://oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/lynch. f I am referring here to online searches that I did January 5, 2013.

g For historian Berg (2011), “To speak of lynching as extralegal punishment takes for granted the principle that only

government institutions have the authority to enforce the law, suppress crime, and punish criminals. In short, the

word lynching assumes the existence of the modern state which, theoretically, holds a [‘]monopoly of legitimate

violence[’]” (unnumbered preface page, Kindle edition). For me, somewhat contrarily, the legitimate political au-

thority of a pre-state society might be challenged by a lynching—i.e., by a mob-punishment murder judged illegiti-

mate by the jural norms of the culture—as easily as by any more ordinary murder. Thus, where I assume Berg would

discount by definition anthropologist Hoebel’s (1954) Carib, Comanche, and Eskimo examples of lynchings

(1954:300, 142, 81, respectively), I would discount them as examples rather of these peoples’ exercise of legitimate,

jural (versus legal) death penalties. What is more important to me about Berg on lynching(s), though I do too little

with analysis in the present paper to make it clear, is the extent to which I agree with and find stimulating his analyt-

ic work. h Ferraro & Andreatta (2010) is an introductory-level text I have used that includes each of public opinion, corporate

lineages, and supernatural belief systems in a list of some of the world’s cultures’ informal means of social control

(2010:328-33).

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/lynch

http://oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/lynch


4

for trial. Faced with the actual thief breaking into his house, however, he and his

neighbours very often respond in terms of an older set of standards, according to

which the village community had to provide for itself security of life and proper-

ty. … Thus what in traditional Busoga was a legitimate form of punishment is

slowly coming to be regarded as a kind of crime (1967:92-93, from more than one

paragraph in the original).

In the same Bohannan-edited volume, La Fontaine (1967), concerning Gisu (eastern Uganda),

writes of legitimacy in killing thieves, adulterers, and sorcerers, whether this is done by a single

person or by some number:

Action against a thief or adulterer is defense of individual property; the responsi-

bility lies on one man [viz., the owner or husband]. Action against a sorcerer is

the result of a series of acts which have lost him the support of the community; in

a sense, his killers are agents of the community at large. It is said that elders of a

lineage might even, after consultation, depute some young men to kill a recog-

nized witch or sorcerer who was considered a public menace.

Homicide in these three instances is largely a matter of social control in that it is

the ultimate sanction for conformity with social norms. An attack on another per-

son’s property, including his wife, or anti-social behavior which lays a man open

to the charge of being a witch or sorcerer, both threaten the norms of Gisu society.

The killing which may follow is then just (1967:100-01).

I proceed, now, with each of the paper’s seven assertions in turn.

2. Seven assertions concerning lynchings in modern Kenya

First, lynchings in Kenya are common. They are common to the point that they are recog-

nized by many Kenyans, for better or for worse, as part of their national culture. In 2011, accord-

ing to a Kenya Police crime statistic for that year, they were more than three-and-a-half times as

common, per capita, as lynchings in America during the worst year of recorded U.S. lynching

history.i

In his wittily satirical How to be a Kenyan (1996), the late Kenyan humorist Wahome

Mutahi devoted one of the book’s twenty-seven essays to lynching. The essay’s title—‘A neck-

i ‘Annual crime report for the year 2011,’ Kenya Police,

http://www.kenyapolice.go.ke/resources/CRIME%20REPORT%202011.pdf, accessed 2 Feb 2013. Statistics from

the same 2011 Kenya Police report by no means have every part of Kenya equally given to lynching, as the year’s

figure for Nyanza is 108 while that for North Eastern is zero (though there may in fact be underreporting here for

North Eastern). Thus, in saying that lynchings in Kenya are common, I am not saying they are either common or

equally common throughout the whole of the country.

Comparisons at various points in the paper with America’s lynching history are not meant to paint Kenya in

a harshly negative light vis-à-vis the U.S. I have no reason to doubt Berg’s (2010) statement that, “while precise

numbers are unavailable, historians agree that the total extent of collective violence during the Reconstruction era,

including lynching-style executions, exceeded even the levels of the 1890s, which are often considered the heyday

of lynching in American history” (2010:87), and that Reconstruction-era lynchings of blacks in the South may some

years have numbered in the thousands (2010:ibid.; Dray 2002:47-49).

http://www.kenyapolice.go.ke/resources/CRIME%20REPORT%202011.pdf


5

lace for all sizes’—alludes to one of the number of methods of modern Kenyan lynchings—viz.,

that of placing a tire around the victim’s neck, so to speak, and burning the victim alive inside it.

The book’s Amazon.com webpage describes the book in part as “a series of hilarious essays

about what it means to be a Kenyan”; its back cover advertises it as “so painfully true that you

will want to hide it from all non-Kenyans,” adding that, “It helps Kenyans to reflect on and laugh

at the peculiarities of thought, manner, and attitude which make them Kenyan, while lessening

considerably the culture shock for those non-Kenyans who come into contact with Kenya.” The

lynching essay includes mention of what Kenyans must know to avoid being lynched. The fact

that such a book can treat lynching with any humor, alongside or as part of such topics as peculi-

arities of Kenyan English and warning signs taken to mean the opposite of what they say (e.g.,

“Don’t run in the bar”)j—while this fact speaks to me of lynchings as an embarrassing-to-some

reality of everyday Kenyan life, it may yet be very difficult for any with a human rights perspec-

tive on lynchings to comprehend.

“A routine crime,” says the title of a 2009 Economist article on lynchings in Kenya. Part

of the article’s subtitle calls such mob justice “alarmingly common.” The article proper starts

with a one-paragraph report of a triple-lynching near an upscale Nairobi shopping center. The

lynchings are provoked by the sidewalk theft of a mobile phone. The phone’s owner manages to

catch hold of the thief; an instant mob stones to death the thief and two accomplices; the mob,

dispersing, resumes walking to work while police remove three bodies. The second paragraph

then continues, “Nobody knows how many such lynchings happen in Kenya every year. What is

certain is that they are commonplace. Some [Members of Parliament] worry that violence is on

the rise as more people lack jobs and young men are frustrated. The lack of statistics is itself tell-

ing.”3 The lack of official statistics available to the public changed in 2011—the first year that

the Kenya Police published mob justice statistics (for lethal lynchings) as an independent crime

category—with an annual crime report figure of 543.k This compares with America’s worst-year

figure of 230 for 1892,l as with some earlier Kenya figures, cited in U.S. Department of State

Kenya country reports on human rights practices, of “almost 500” for 1992, 508 for 1993, and

240 for 2000.4, m

Kenya’s media present lynchings as commonplace, as unremarkable (for the most part),

as normally lacking what Rogers (2003) calls news ‘salience’:

j Kenway Publications, Nairobi, ‘A necklace for all sizes,’ 49-51; ‘“Flied lice”,’ 4-7; ‘No warnings please, we are

Kenyans,’ 71-72. The ‘No warnings please’ essay cautions Kenyans against running in circumstances where other

Kenyans are likely to interpret this as attempted escape from apprehension and lynching for whatever alleged crime

or other offense. See the book’s full Amazon.com description and one review at http://www.amazon.com/How-be-

Kenyan-Wahome-Mutahi/dp/9966465626/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359226329&sr=8-

1&keywords=wahome+mutahi+how+to+be+a+kenyan, accessed 14 Apr 2013. k ‘Annual crime report for the year 2011,’ Kenya Police (see note i). See concerning ‘mob injustice’ on pages 2-3

and 11-13. The report uses the term ‘mob justice’ eleven times, appears to be inconsistent by using ‘mob injustice’

twice, and does not use ‘lynch’ or any derivative term even once (though Kenya’s media do use ‘lynch’ and deriva-

tive terms regularly). Although it at no point defines ‘mob justice’ formally as lethal lynching, it does say of it, in a

section of recommendations, that, “Persons involved, when arrested, are charged with murder” (2011:12). l Tuskegee Institute figure, http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/shipp/lynchingyear.html, accessed 3 Feb

2013. White (1969 [1928]) asserts a slightly higher 235 (1969:231); Berg (2011), in saying that, “In the election year

of 1892, at least 161 blacks were lynched” (2011:95), appears to be allowing for a figure at least slightly greater than

230. m For the U.S. Department of State country reports that I have found available on the Internet from 1977, I believe it

is only from 1992 that they treat what they have variously called ‘mob violence’ (the most frequent term by far),

‘public executions by civilians’ (used just twice), ‘mob justice’, or ‘vigilante justice’. The reports seldom refer to

mob violence killings with a form of ‘lynch’.

http://www.amazon.com/How-be-Kenyan-Wahome-Mutahi/dp/9966465626/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359226329&sr=8-1&keywords=wahome+mutahi+how+to+be+a+kenyan



http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/shipp/lynchingyear.html


6

Salience is the degree to which a news event is perceived as important by individ-

uals. What determines this salience of a news event? The media convey to their

audience strong clues about the degree to which media professionals judge an

event to have high news value: whether a news story is given bulletin status (that

is, by interrupting regular broadcasts), whether it appears in bold headlines or at

the top of a news show, and the length of broadcast time or news space allotted to

the news story (2003:77-78).

Thus, a given lynching incident is often reported by just one of the Nation, Standard, or Star, and

conversely, it is infrequent that any one lynching incident is reported by all three. Similarly,

lynchings are seldom front-page news; they are likely, rather, to be reported as briefs, or as re-

gional or local news, or as non-headline items in crime roundup articles. When reported as one of

however many briefs—as, e.g., in a narrow vertical column of such—a lynching brief might ap-

pear anywhere from top to bottom in the column; when reported as a non-headline item in a

crime roundup, the lynching item is often introduced—consistent with its relative lack of sali-

ence in the roundup—by a sentence beginning with “Meanwhile, …” or “Elsewhere, ….” The

text of some newspaper lynching reports is no longer than a single sentence.5 A Star article of

July 24, 2012 reported five persons lynched in Nairobi in five separate incidents the previous

Sunday night, though without making most of even this much clear until the initial two sentences

of the article’s last of three paragraphs: “Five other suspected thieves were lynched to death in

Kibera Soweto, Kahawa Wendani, Dandora Estate, Canaan Village, Kayole Estate, Rasta Stage

and in Kitengela. All the bodies were later transferred to the City Mortuary.”6 In such ways,

Kenya’s media present lynchings, whether or not regrettably, as part of Kenyan culture—as part

of the norm for Kenya.

Likewise, Kenya’s newspapers also sometimes contain Kenyan reader, columnist, and

editorial opinions to the effect that Kenya is a nation that lynches. Thus, in relation to one of

Kenya’s many costly Government scandals (for none of which anyone of significance, to the best

of my knowledge, has ever been held responsible), Standard reader Jack Onyango grumbles,

All our problems lie with Western ideas about justice. We’re a country of public

stonings and lynchings. So we understand Chinese tactics like firing squads for

those involved in a milk scandal that killed six babies. Next time President Kibaki

meets his Chinese pals, they [viz., the Chinese] should make execution of looters

of public coffers a condition for [Chinese foreign] aid [to Kenya]. We’ll never

hear about stolen maize again!7

Thus again, in ironic contrast to what journalist Peter Mwaura says is Kenyans’ penchant for

buying fake or stolen goods,

Kenyans will enthusiastically, and with extreme moral outrage, lynch a suspected

thief. We are a nation of lynchers. On average, Kenyans lynch one or two sus-

pected thieves daily, according to police 2011 statistics. According to the police

statistics, 543 people were lynched last year, with 133 of them reported in Nairobi

alone. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Not all lynchings are reported.8


7

And thus again, there is the opening line of Elizabeth Njora’s ‘Have your say’ piece: “Mob jus-

tice cases have become so common, it is frightening.”9 In addition, for each Kenyan politician or

union official reported in a news article as condemning lynching (which does sometimes hap-

pen), it seems there is another reported as either encouraging or threatening with it—with appar-

ent impunity.10

That Kenyans lynch as they do—more or less daily; normally—is part of what

informs the judgment of some that theirs is a culture of violence.11

During April-August 2013, the most recent five-full-months’ period for which I have data

on Kenyan lynchings, I downloaded reports from the Nation, Standard, and Star that reported, on

average, over 1.2 lynchings per day for the 153 days concerned (see Appendix 1). These are me-

dia-reported lynchings from just three of Kenya’s national print media, so they will be fewer in

number, surely by many, than those of any eventual Kenya Police or other Government report

for the same period. When I assert that lynchings in Kenya are common, I am not talking about

Kenya’s far past; I am talking, indisputably, about Kenya’s recent past and present. To have sev-

en persons reported lynched on May 6, 2013 alone in close to as many separate criminal inci-

dents is for lynchings to be indeed common.12

To have the lynching of five suspected robbers in

a single incident reported as a non-headline item in a June 29, 2013 crime roundup article, again,

is for lynchings to be indeed common.13

Second, lynchings in Kenya are cruel. The point may seem obvious; however, since in-

ternational horror at these mob violence killings may prove vital to their being stopped, it bears

spelling out at some length.

There is a sense in which cruel is in the eye of the beholder; there is also the common

dictionary sense in which I intend the word here, and which I believe Kenyans too intend when

they use cruel and like adjectives to describe either particular Kenyan lynchings or Kenyan

lynchings generally. According to its current merriam-webster.com token, that dictionary sense

of cruel starts with “causing or conducive to injury, grief, or pain”; it includes as well “unre-

lieved by leniency,” as in a “cruel punishment”; it is a sense rounded out by a list of synonyms

that includes barbaric, brutal, fiendish, inhuman, sadistic, savage, vicious, and red in tooth and

claw; and it is a sense that is shared by the dictionary phrase cruel and unusual punishment, de-

fined as “punishment to include torture, barbarous punishments, degrading punishments not

known to the common law, and punishments so disproportionate to the offense as to shock the

general moral sense.”14

(As an anthropologist, I am aware that the terms ‘savage’ and ‘barbaric’

have evolutionist connotations, especially within anthropology, and that some take great offense

at them for this reason. At the same time, some Kenyans do use these terms—in their dictionary

senses, clearly enough, I believe—to describe not just Kenyan lynchings, but also the killings of

certain animals by poachers.15

)

Lynchings in Kenya, then, cruel as I assert them to be, are thus by a wide variety of

methods. These include at least stoning, beating, bludgeoning, hacking or otherwise injuring with

various kinds of blades (e.g., machetes, swords, spears, knives), chopping with axes, assault with

various kinds of crude implements (e.g., hoes), shooting with arrows, burning alive (including by

so-called necklacing), burying alive, and various combinations thereof—as sometimes assisted

by whipping, kicking, and other such non-primary methods.16

They are never unambiguously, by

any of my data, by the presumed-typical American method of hanging;17

nor, unless one counts

certain extra-judicial killings by police or other Government agents as lynchings (as some in fact

do),18

are they ever by shooting.n When by stoning, which may have some claim to be a typical,

n American lynchings were perhaps most often by hanging (see, e.g., Berg’s 2011:66 description of frontier lynch-

ings as normally by hanging); they were also sometimes by shooting or a combination of hanging and shooting (see,


8

more traditional Kenyan method,19

they can result in the victim’s brains being literally bashed

from the skull.20

They sometimes involve lengthier, more deliberate torture than might be said to

be part of any norm.21

My impression is that they very rarely involve the taking and displaying of

human body parts as trophies.22

Some data that illustrate both their methods and their cruelty are

as follows:

In December 1996, a mob from a Nairobi slum village lynched a watchman sent as part

of an eviction squad to demolish their village. The victim “was stalked, chased around, cornered,

stoned and beaten unconscious, doused with paraffin [i.e., kerosene] and set on fire.” The mob,

armed with sticks, rungus,o and stones, pursued the victim as he “ran for his life, screaming and

pleading for mercy.” The victim fell to the ground under a hail of stones; a man slashed him with

a panga.p As he “asked for forgiveness from the crowd baying for his blood,” they covered him

with wood and other inflammables. Each time he lifted his head, someone struck him. “A woman

doused him with fuel as he writhed in pain, then another man lit the match and set the hapless

watchman ablaze.” The mob then “stood by cheering and watched him die.” The next day, a Na-

tion editorial decried the lynching, saying the watchman’s participation in the eviction squad was

no excuse for killing him “in such a cruel manner.”23

In July 2006, a mob lynched six youths alleged to be robbers and rapists behind a wave of

crime in Nakuru Town. Having learned the identities of the youths by beating another suspect,

the mob found them playing cards the next day in a residential estate. The youths attempted to

flee; the mob, armed, apprehended them, battered them, frog-marched them to an open field,

then doused them with gasoline and set them on fire. Police said two of the youths did not die

until shortly after police arrived on the scene.24

Reacting from Australia to news of this incident,

a “clearly disappointed” Kenyan wrote “to say how saddened he was by the barbaric behaviour

of the Nakuru villagers who took the law into their own hands and killed a group of young peo-

ple caught playing cards because they suspected them of being robbers.”25

A Nation article from end August 2011, noting that 104 people had been lynched across

the country in July-August of that year,q reported concerns that mob violence had become com-

monplace in Kenya. “The victims were cornered by crowds and stoned, set ablaze, bludgeoned

with clubs or chopped with machetes. Many of them were suspected of committing petty crimes

like burglary, pickpocketing, [and] mugging[,] as well as snatching handbags and mobile phones

on the streets.”26

The next day, a Nation editorial protested, “It is uncivilised, atavistic and totally

unacceptable that violent mobs have the licence to kill suspected criminals in total disregard of

due process. The killings are carried out in the most painful and barbaric way, including stoning

suspects to death or burning them alive.”27

Many Kenyan lynchings are cruel by the appalling lack of fit—except, apparently, to

those perpetrating, applauding, or condoning them—of punishment to alleged crime (see below,

e.g., Wells-Barnett’s 2002:197 “the ordinary procedure of hanging and shooting” and White’s 1969:22 “the conven-

tional hanging or shooting”); and, as evidenced by the title Rope and faggot of long-time NAACP president Walter

White’s 1928 book about the lynching of American blacks, they were sometimes by burning alive (in relation to

which kind of more vastly cruel method White 1969:20 wrote of “relatively painless hanging or shooting”). While I

do not recall having seen percentages for any of these or less common methods for the over 4,700 recorded Ameri-

can lynchings from 1882, well less than half of the twenty-one 1930 lynchings of Raper (1933) were by hanging and

more of the twenty-one were by shooting than hanging. o ‘Rungu’ is the KiSwahili term for a kind of East African hardwood throwing club or cudgel similar in form to a

knobkerrie or shillelagh. p ‘Panga’ is the KiSwahili term for a kind of heavy, broad-bladed cutting instrument similar in form to a machete.

q The last year of 100 or more recorded lynchings in U.S. lynching history (not the last two-month period) was 1901.


9

under the paper’s third assertion, some of the relatively petty reasons for which Kenyans some-

times lynch).28

For some Kenyan lynchings, this lack of fit may be total for the fact that the vic-

tims, not a few of them elderly, were evidently or at least arguably innocent of any crime.29

If it is hard to imagine the cruelty of which white American mobs, historically, were

sometimes guilty in burning black victims alive, one today can go on YouTube and watch parts

of a number of recent lynchings in which Kenyan mobs are similarly cruel.30

One can also read

written and watch video reactions to such lynchings.31

That these lynchings are cruel is, I be-

lieve, without question. A pertinent question for Kenyan lynch mobs remains, apparently: Do

they see any punishment as too cruel for those they lynch?

Third, lynchings in Kenya are committed for numerous alleged reasons—mostly for al-

leged crimes—but very rarely for reasons related either to race or to sexual orientation or gen-

der identity. The list of alleged crimes for which Kenyans are reported to lynch appears headed

by theft (which term, I believe, Kenyans sometimes use in the sense of larceny more broadly)

and it includes witchcraft (also called sorcery in media accounts concerned). The size of an al-

leged theft need not be great for it to be punished by lynching. Neither sexual orientation nor

gender identity nor same-sex sex figures prominently, if at all, among the list’s alleged sex-

related crimes. Ethnicity-related lynchings are reported with any frequency only around elec-

tions. My data on approximately 1,500 persons lynched contain no incidents of white-on-black

or black-on-white lynching—i.e., of lynchings that might be construed as racially-motivated; all

are black-on-black. Kenyans say they “take the law in their hands”r and lynch criminal suspects

as they do because they distrust the police and the courts to protect them and provide them jus-

tice.32

Reporting 508 people murdered by mob violence in 1993, the U.S. Department of State’s

Kenya country report on human rights practices for that year summarized saying, “Most victims

were either suspected thieves or were accused of being sorcerers.”33

The Nation article that re-

ported 104 lynchings for July-August 2011 said that, while most victims of the cases from

around Nairobi were suspected thieves, “in rural areas, besides suspected thieves, those lynched

were victims of land disputes as well as others accused of practising witchcraft.”34

The following is a list of just something of the range of items or categories of items for

which I have reports of alleged larcenists being lynched in Kenya: a person;35

motorcycles, cars,

other motorized vehicles, bicycles;36

money, jewelry, wallets, handbags, mobile phones, other

valuables carried or worn on the person;37

money or goods from a shop or other business premis-

es;38

household goods—e.g., computers, other electronics, sewing machines, furniture, clothes;39

car parts or accessories, personal effects from inside a car;40

telecommunications cable;41

cattle,

goats, rabbits, chickens, the milk from a neighbor’s cow;42

sacks of coffee or potatoes;43

toma-

toes, green maize, maize, kale, arrowroot, other farm or garden vegetables;44

votes, or even vic-

tory, in an election.45

Sex-related crimes or acts for which I have reports of suspects being lynched are rape (or

attempted rape), adultery, sex with an animal (e.g., a cow), and sodomizing a minor.46

The one

story I have collected that reports the lynching of a gay or lesbian in Kenya I found on the web-

site Identity Kenya, Kenya’s LGBTI and sex-work community website. That article, dated June

16, 2012, was an update that reports the mob violence killing concerned as having happened

May 27, 2012. When I consulted the website again in February 2013, I found no additional such

reports (of gays being lynched); also, the article I had found previously no longer carried a date,

r Kenyan media reports use both “take the law in their hands” and “take the law in their own hands.”


10

its headline no longer announced its contents as an update, and I noticed that two of three reader

comments expressed less than complete confidence in the story’s veracity.47

Other crimes blamed for many lynchings are various kinds of assault, both lethal and

non-lethal,48

and witchcraft.s Witchcraft is indeed a crime in Kenya, according to Kenyan law’s

Witchcraft Act.49

Enacted during the colonial era in 1925, this act treats alleged or pretended

witchcraft, alleged or pretended witches, and paraphernalia associated with and fears and other

alleged effects of the same (e.g., damage to person or property); it nowhere states that witchcraft

has any reality in fact. Since witchcraft’s most serious alleged effect—death—is the same as that

of any lethal assault,50

it may be, analytically, that witchcraft should be seen as an alleged means

of assault sometimes met by lynching. Membership in one or another kind of criminal gang, also

blamed for many lynchings, presumes participation with others in one or more criminal activi-

ties—e.g., one or more kinds of larceny together with one or more kinds of assault.51

From 1998,

U.S. Department of State Kenya country reports on human rights practices include as one of the

suspected criminal activities for which the great majority of mob violence victims were killed

membership in “terror gangs,” “terrorist gangs,” or “criminal or terrorist gangs.”52

I do not believe my data include any cases of ethnicity-related lynchings that were not a

part of either pre- or post-election violence. During the violence that followed the December

2007 national elections (elections that involved more or less rigging by both sides), some number

of people were lynched after mobs identified their ethnicity from their names as found on their

national identity cards.53

The fact of ethnicity-related lynchings around elections appears to me

due in part to Kenyans reacting to the alleged rigging of an election as to an act of theft, and to

all members of the ethnic community of the politician deemed guilty of the rigging as together

responsible for it. Thus, when a journalist, during the post-election violence of early 2008, asked

a newly-elected councillor, “Why are you killing people, you guys?” the councillor’s retort was,

“These are not people. These are thieves.”54

Ironically, where Kenyans’ despising theft and rationalizing the lynching of thieves is

concerned, SUNY-Buffalo law professor Makau Mutua says they have themselves become “a

nation of thieves,” however much they pretend to be religious: “But we pretend to be a religious

nation. Don’t make me laugh. Unless being religious—Christian, Muslim, Hindu, or a kamuti

believer (Kamba spell)—means that you can “pinch” that which isn’t yours with impunity.”55

Fourth, lynchings in Kenya are rarely punished by law. Police officials are often reported,

in the wake of lynchings, as warning people that those who “take the law in their hands” will be

punished by law, and as telling them they must instead hand criminal suspects over to the po-

lice.56

Nonetheless, I have seldom seen reported arrests of members of lynch mobs, let alone

prosecutions, convictions, or punishment. The Kenya Police defend their lack of arrests here,

saying that no one will testify against members of lynch mobs—reminiscent, historically, of the

common American-South grand jury conclusion, “At the hands of persons unknown.”

s From 1992, a large majority of U.S. Department of State Kenya country reports on human rights practices mention

suspicion of sorcery or witchcraft (interchangeable terms here) in a short list of causes of mob violence killings—

e.g., “the burning of those accused of sorcery” (1992), “cases of “mob justice” included a father and son burned to

death by mobs on suspicion of being wizards” (1996), “at least 16 persons killed on suspicion of practicing witch-

craft” (1998), “Occasionally[,] mobs killed members of their communities on suspicion that they practiced witch-

craft” (2001), “There were reports that mobs killed members of their communities on suspicion that they practiced

witchcraft” (2004), “Mob violence against individuals suspected of witchcraft was a problem, particularly in Kisii,

Luo Nyanza, and Western Province” (2005). See, for links to the reports concerned, notes 4 (1992), 52 (1998, 2001,

2004, 2005), and 62 (1996).


11

The Nation editorial that protested the 104 lynchings of July-August 2011 said that not a

single person had been arrested from recent cases.57

From 1992, one or more U.S. Department of State Kenya country reports on human

rights practices have noted each of the following: that there were reports of police turning a blind

eye to some lynchings;58

that Kenya’s security forces, in spite of public statements by the presi-

dent that mob violence must stop, had not made its suppression a priority;59

that, “The Govern-

ment condemned [mob violence killings] but has taken no action to address the problem, as it

treats such incidents as individual cases of murder” (the last part meaning, I believe, that it sees a

murder as a murder, whether or not it is committed by a mob);60

that the Government, though

condemning lynchings, had taken no action to address the problem, nor arrested any participants

in the violence;61

that the Government, though condemning mob justice and investigating lynch-

ings, had not arrested any participants in them;62

that most perpetrators of mob violence went

unpunished;63

that most perpetrators of mob violence went unpunished and that there were no

developments in cases reported in previous years;64

that the Government rarely made arrests for

mob violence or vigilante justice, or prosecuted the perpetrators;65

that there was no news of “of-

ficial action,”66

no “developments,”67

no action taken by year’s end68

for certain cases of lethal

mob violence mentioned in country reports of one or more previous years; that police did not in-

tervene to prevent the May 2011 mob killing of a married couple accused of a witchcraft murder

and that no action had been taken by year’s end;69

that, “Human rights observers attributed vigi-

lante violence to a lack of public confidence in police and the criminal justice system, in which

assailants evaded arrest or bribed their way out of jail. … Police frequently failed to act to stop

mob violence.”70

And again from 1992, there have been only three Kenya country reports—those

for 1997, 1998, and 2009—that note the Government having arrested and charged in court many

people (or even any) for taking part in mob violence.71

According to Kenya’s media, official warnings to the public against the lynching of crim-

inal suspects are sometimes met with derision. Thus, villagers’ response to one such warning was

reported to be jeering, booing, and the message that they would continue to kill suspected crimi-

nals. What the villagers concerned had done was to burn alive two suspected murderers, in re-

sponse to which a police commander tried to condemn mob justice and the public’s unwilling-

ness to give evidence against lynching suspects. The commander told them that, if found guilty

of taking the law in their hands, they would be charged accordingly—i.e., with murder. He ad-

monished them that they must learn to hand suspects over to the police.72

In June 2012, reader

comments on a reported police warning to mobs expressed Kenyans’ frustration with a corrupt,

ineffective, revolving-door system of criminal justice in which suspects turned in to the police

are back on the streets in no time and continuing to commit crimes. One reader comment begins,

“If am robbed today by a thug and, after his arrest and remand at the police station, I meet him

on the streets robbing someone else in broad daylight and probably in the process of harming the

victim, what am I expected to do—run to the police station and report to the same corrupt offic-

ers for action and leave it at that???”73

Analytically here, police and public are trading charges of

what Rogers (2003) calls individual-blame and system-blame, respectively (2003:118-20), where

the system-blame is Kenyan-national and thus at a different, lower-system level than that with

which Goldstein (2005) charges American neoliberal foreign policy for Latin American lynch-

ings.74

(Another response from the public, from a letter to the editor, expressed mock surprise at

a certain lynching-related warning from a police commander. It is not easy, the writer said, for an

unarmed public to arrest an armed gangster. “There is the grave risk that innocent people could

be killed or injured in the process. That’s why armed and trained police officers shoot suspects,


12

including street urchins plucking side mirrors in the streets. If police rarely arrest suspects, how

possible is this for an unarmed public?”75

)

That Kenyans are able to lynch with relative impunity—without consistent, serious threat

of arrest, prosecution, or punishment76

—appears to me consistent with impunity long enjoyed by

members of Kenya’s Government and police for crimes of a number of kinds.77

The U.S. De-

partment of State’s 2012 Kenya country report on human rights practices noted the following in

relation to one particularly outlandish case:

Impunity remained a serious problem, including for abuses committed in previous

years. In January 2011 three police officers shot and killed three suspected car-

jackers who already had surrendered. The incident occurred in the middle of a

busy Nairobi highway in broad daylight; it was captured on camera and featured

prominently in the media. The officers were suspended temporarily but subse-

quently reinstated, although the investigation into the incident continued at year’s

end.78

That lynchings in Kenya are rarely punished by law appears to me due in part to Kenya’s

Government, media, and people evidently not regarding lynchings by the public as killings or

lawlessness of the same nature as killings or lawlessness committed by criminal suspects. Thus, a

tough-on-crime presidential statement addressing a major insecurity problem can target terror-

gang criminals who kill villagers while ignoring lynch mobs that kill as many or more in re-

sponse; and a news article reporting both this insecurity and the Government’s response can fail

to include at least eight persons lynched among “[t]he total number of people killed in Bungoma

and Busia counties over the past three weeks.”79

Thus also, concerning nine criminal suspects

reported killed in Nairobi over a two-day period in August 2013, six of them lynched by the pub-

lic in attempted robberies, the headline of the article concerned has the police and lynch mobs

together in the war against crime. Four of seven reader comments applaud the police—e.g.,

nyakwari’s “Let thieves be killed.” Two of the other three comments, however, read hypocrisy in

the article’s reported warning to the public against killing criminal suspects by Nairobi police

commander Benson Kibui—e.g., Polkot’s “Kibui is contradicting himself. The police do no[t]

arrest suspects. They shoot dead on sight. They lead by example. The public is simply copy-

ing.”80

Is there a greater risk of being arrested in Kenya for burning charcoal illegally than for

burning a human person?81

Fifth, lynchings in Kenya have inequitable access to basic resources as one contributing

cause. Land is reported or alleged with some frequency to be an issue behind certain lynchings,

with many poor Kenyans lacking access to land for affordable urban residence or as a means of

rural livelihood. Theft of public land by Kenya’s powerful has been a commonplace of the coun-

try’s history and has contributed to gross inequities.82

Poverty is reported, at least implicitly, as

one of the reasons for lynchings in urban slums.83

Reported theft of drinking water in slums,

while I have not yet seen it clearly alleged a reason for lynchings, may soon become so.84

In a follow-up article on a lynching I have described already—that by slum residents of a

member of an eviction squad—the reporter described as follows the late Nobel laureate Wangari

Maathai’s reaction: “She regretted the man’s death but added that the public would react violent-

ly if the wealthy were allowed to take over their resources.”85


13

In May 1998, while leader of the official opposition in Kenya’s Parliament, ex-president

Mwai Kibaki may have witnessed a lynching in relation to inequitable access to land as a basic

resource. The lynching occurred after armed raiders attacked and disrupted an inter-party peace

meeting in Trans Nzoia, a district with land disputes stemming back to the colonial period’s es-

tablishment of white farms. Where the disrupted peace meeting was concerned, a number of dis-

trict community leaders were alleged to have “threatened not to allow the meeting to proceed,

alleging the MPs were out to incite local residents into invading ADC [Agricultural Develop-

ment Corporation] land.” But the Nation article reporting the lynching also said, “[The MPs who

addressed the meeting before the disruption] complained that ADC farms were being allocated to

outsiders instead of to squatters,” and “[t]hey proposed that a committee of MPs be set up to re-

settle the landless.”86

Land rights are such a sensitive, volatile issue that people, especially strangers, found

surveying or inspecting a contested piece of land risk being lynched by locals with any interest in

it.87

Land-grabbing is included regularly in Kenya Human Rights Commission annual reports of

human rights abuses in Kenya.88

Whether from crass greed for land or from desperately-felt need, desire to possess the

land of a relatively weak, defenseless person is often alleged to be behind witch-allegation lynch-

ings in both coastal and western Kenya.89

In just one example for western Kenya, there was a

May 2008 incident in Kisii that saw at least eleven elderly alleged witches, most of them women,

hacked and burned to death by a mob of about 500. With regard to the witch allegations, howev-

er, a Standard article reported some villagers as saying that the lynchings related rather to land

disputes, and it quoted one local as follows: “These are gangs hired to kill old people so that their

land can be inherited by neighbours. How come they only target old people?”90

For the coast, a

charge is reported generally that the killings of many elderly people by groups of family mem-

bers are not witch-related, as alleged, but rather about land. Thus, in a February 2013 article that

reported at least 250 elderly people killed on witch suspicions from 2008 to 2012 in parts of

Kilifi and Malindi districts, the chairman of a local cultural association is paraphrased to the ef-

fect that the issue is land, not anyone’s witchcraft. In this regard, he is quoted as saying, “When

the Mzee has become old you find the youth pressuring him or her to give them land, and when

they refuse, then they are called ‘witches’ so that they can be eliminated.”91

Sixth, lynchings in Kenya are a major human rights scandal. At base here is the judg-

ment that lynchings in Kenya, as everywhere, violate human rights of the victims concerned.

This judgment I make, not by my own personal or national-cultural abhorrence of lynching, but

by reference to the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights (see Appendix 2).t

The violators of the lynching victims’ rights are a number of Kenya’s people, on the one hand,

by direct perpetration, various kinds of assistance, or even just silent acquiescence; but they in-

clude Kenya’s Government as well, by its failure to prevent some number of them,u its failure to

prosecute and seriously punish more than very few of them, and its failure to make the fight

t Appendix 2 contains the twelve articles or part articles of the Declaration that I see either clearly or arguably vio-

lated by lynchings wherever they occur. Philosophically, I see a need for the Universal Declaration to be grounded

adequately, not simply asserted, and I find adequate grounding for at least its core lynching-related articles in a

Christian worldview and anthropology. u Where a government’s failure to prevent preventable lynchings is concerned, I believe a strong argument can be

made that it is guilty of culpable neglect of the custodial responsibility it has for those subject to it. The kind of cul-

pable neglect concerned is not a Western notion foreign to Africa; it is, rather, one that Douglas (1967) saw in Lele

(southern Democratic Republic of Congo) blood debts (1967:241) and that I wrote about in McKee (1995) as of

great importance in Meegye-Mangbetu (northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo) death compensations.


14

against them any level of national priority. Then, above and beyond the rights-violation judg-

ment is the judgment of a major scandal—which I grant is more subjective and which I therefore

begin to explain in the remainder of the paper’s present section.

I believe Ida B. Wells-Barnett, pioneer and wonderfully effective African-American anti-

lynching crusader, was right to reproach turn-of-the-twentieth-century Christian America for its

lynching record. America thought and proclaimed itself civilized; it was in fact, Wells-Barnett

(2002) charged, especially by its lynching black Americans by burning them alive before large

crowds,92

savage and barbaric, which were the other two adjectives of the day’s evolutionist

trio.v

American Christianity heard of this awful affair [of five blacks lynched in Missis-

sippi ca. September 1892, on suspicion of poisoning a well and perhaps causing

one or more white deaths] and read of its details and neither press nor pulpit gave

the matter more than a passing comment. Had it occurred in the wilds of interior

Africa, there would have been an outcry from the humane people of this country

against the savagery which would so mercilessly put men and women to death.

But it was an evidence of American civilization to be passed by unnoticed, to be

denied or condoned as the requirements of any future emergency might determine

(2002:99 [‘A red record,’ 1895], italics added).

Not only has life been taken by mobs in the last twenty years, but the ordinary

procedure of hanging and shooting [has] been improved upon during the past ten

years. Fifteen human beings have been burned to death in the different parts of the

country by mobs. Men, women and children have gone to see the sight, and all

have approved the barbarous deeds done in the high light of the civilization and

Christianity of this country (2002:197 [‘Mob rule in New Orleans,’ 1900], italics

added).

Yet, if it is true that America had a huge, deeply shameful problem with lynchings in the

1880s, 1890s, and beyond—Tolnay & Beck (1995) use phrases like “this carnage,” “the truly

incredible level of slaughter,” “a frenzy of lynching,” and “that avalanche of post-Reconstruction

violence” to characterize Southern lynchings from 1882 through 1930 (1995:ix, 2, 3, 4, respec-

tively); Samuel Clemens (1923), reacting to a 1901 multiple lynching near Pierce City, south-

western Missouri, after America’s worst decade of reported lynching history and alluding to ex-

act knowledge of annual U.S. figures no higher than about 115, yet branded America “the United

States of Lyncherdom” and pleaded sarcastically with the country’s missionaries to China to

come home and convert its Christian lynch mobs—what kind of problem does modern Kenya

have, and is it being responded to as it deserves by Kenya’s Government, its people, its press, the

U.S., the UN, and the rest of the international community?

Starting with Kenya’s Government, ending with its people, and holding its press until the

paper’s conclusion:

I have already noted a number of things, especially with regard to the paper’s fourth as-

sertion, that testify to what I see as the Kenya Government’s effective indifference to Kenya’s

lynching problem, which I do not believe they consider a major scandal—or even a significant

v See Wells-Barnett (2002) passim; and see Morgan (1877) for a good example of late-nineteenth-century anthro-

pology’s evolutionist-progressivist use of the three terms savagery, barbarism, and civilization.


15

part of the country’s problem with lawlessness and insecurity.93

Kenya’s Government, for all

who know Kenya, is used to weathering mega-scandals. At the same time, its leaders allege it a

God-fearing nation, though perhaps unmindful as they do so that it was America’s God-fearing

South that lynched so many black Americans.94

Until a tipping-point combination of foreign aid

donors, foreign investors, foreign tourists, national and international public opinion, competent

courts of law, and a majority of Kenyan voters hold the Government responsible for its share of

Kenya’s lynching problem,w I do not believe the Government will care about it—not in the main

or effectively.x In any case: As long as there continue to be more than a relative handful of

lynchings per year,95

I believe Kenya will be judged by many, where a state’s monopoly of the

right to use force is concerned, a significantly failed state.

Concerning the UN, I limit myself to three related remarks and an opinion. First, I have

never seen Kenya’s overall lynching record the subject of any UN comment, nor have I heard it

among the negatives the UN cites now and again for which it might see itself obligated to move

its United Nations Office in Nairobi to another country. (This Nairobi office is the UN headquar-

ters in Africa and the third largest UN presence in the world.) Second, the UN criticized Papua

New Guinea recently with regard to “extra-judicial killings linked to accusations of sorcery”96

—

i.e., to lynchings of the kind that occur annually in Kenya with disturbing frequency. Third, the

UN criticized Kenya recently (1) by identifying Kenya among the world’s eight worst offenders

in the illegal ivory trade—a trade noted as threatening both the animals concerned and the people

whose livelihoods depend on tourism;97

(2) by condemning and expressing concern over ten kill-

ings and more than 100 seriously injured from reported “insecurity” in Bungoma and Busia

counties, and by urging the Government to act promptly and appropriately to stem the insecurity

in keeping with applicable standards for the protection of civilians and respect for human

rights;98

and (3) during Kenya’s mid-May 2013 appearance before the United Nations Commit-

tee Against Torture, where the committee took Kenya to task over “its commitment to imple-

menting reforms to address various forms of torture,” including “[mob-lynch] burning of sus-

pected witches in Kisii.”99

However, I am not aware of the UN having criticized Kenya with re-

gard to what were reported as at least eight (but perhaps as many as or more than eighteen?)

lynchings in response to the Bungoma-Busia insecurity, or to Deputy President William Ruto’s

shoot-to-kill order as part of the Government’s response to that insecurity,100

or (again) to Ken-

ya’s overall lynching record. (See an earlier reference to the same “insecurity,” ten killings, and

at least eight lynchings in the last paragraph of the section on the fourth assertion.) Even if I have

missed one or more minor UN statements to Kenya on this human rights topic, the UN, clearly,

could do much more than it has been doing to try to end lynchings in Kenya. It might, for exam-

w By such measures available and appropriate to each—e.g., by aid cuts, embargoes, boycotts, public shaming, vot-

ing out of office, legal convictions and punishments.

If Kenya wanted seriously to stop lynchings, it might, apart from arrest, prosecution, and judicial punish-

ment of all perpetrators and abettors (which might in fact prove relatively difficult), fine constituencies a significant

sum for each lynching that occurred within their respective boundaries, fine their respective MPs as well, and make

the constituencies indemnify the families of the lynching victims concerned (see White 1969:196-226 concerning

something of America’s experience of attempting to end lynchings by such and similar measures). x I acknowledge exceptions to the rule of Government indifference and am heartened by them—e.g., the police chief

who, after police had rescued an alleged rabbit thief from a lynching in process, argued not just the standard line that

it was illegal for the residents to take the law into their hands to punish the suspect, but also that the suspect’s life

was more valuable than the rabbits (‘Suspected Runyenjes rabbit thief beaten up,’ Star, 7 Sep 2012, by Reuben

Githinji, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-3146/suspected-runyenjes-rabbit-thief-beaten, accessed 25 Feb

2013). And my media data include more than just a handful of cases of police officers, district officers, and other

Government agents reported to have successfully intervened to prevent lynchings.

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-3146/suspected-runyenjes-rabbit-thief-beaten


16

ple, press Kenya’s Government to enact anti-torture legislation broad enough to prosecute and

punish all responsible for each of the country’s lynchings.101

Concerning the U.S. (my own country), I have two related remarks and an opinion. First,

Goldstein (2005) has the U.S. contributing to the high numbers of lynchings in Bolivia, Latin

America, and elsewhere throughout the so-called underdeveloped world. (Goldstein did his an-

thropology dissertation research in Bolivia.) Goldstein concludes,

Bolivian society, like that of many countries hemisphere-wide, is rife with vio-

lence, of which lynching is only the most recent variety. Rather than an antiquated

practice or an expression of innate savagery, lynching today is a fully modern re-

sponse to problems of insecurity created by mounting poverty, rising crime, cor-

ruption, and the failure of official justice. The role of the United States in creating

this situation [by its neoliberal and other foreign policy] deserves evaluation now

before another Senate apology [in addition to that of June 13, 2005 to America’s

lynching victims and their families], this time to Bolivian and other Latin Ameri-

can victims of lynching violence, becomes necessary.102

Second, the U.S. Department of State today, in countries like Kenya, appears far more concerned

with what its country reports on human rights practices categorize as abuses, discrimination, and

violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity than it appears to be with lynchings. It

is the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Trade Act of 1974, each as amended since initial

passage, that require the State Department to submit these reports to Congress for all countries

that receive U.S. aid and all UN member states. Although the Kenya country reports for 2011

and 2012 do not allege a single death by any act related to sexual orientation or gender identity,

this subject gets significantly more space than do lynchings, even when the 543 “mob justice”

killings of the Kenya Police’s 2011 crime report are, per capita, more than three-and-a-half times

greater than the 230 of the worst year of recorded U.S. lynching history and though the number

of lynchings for 2012 may well have been greater still (see Appendix 3 and Appendix 4).y Also

in 2011 and 2012, the U.S. government threatened to cut foreign aid to African countries moving

to enact anti-gay legislation;103

it did not, to the best of my knowledge, do anything remotely

similar to Kenya or any other country over an unspeakably outrageous lynching record.104

The

U.S. government’s treatment of the issues concerned here is obscenely disproportionate, espe-

cially given that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights asserts numerous rights clearly vio-

lated by lynchings, but nowhere asserts any rights clearly concerned with sexual orientation or

gender identity. (Whatever one’s views on and whatever the logic or positioned morality of gay

rights, the U.S. government’s threat to Uganda and others over anti-gay legislation is part of the

current Democratic administration’s agenda for American civil rights; it is not based on any ob-

vious-to-all-reasonable-people interpretation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.) 105

Why Congress has not reacted to the high number of Kenya’s 2011 and 2012 lynchings with at

y In the 2011 country report, the zero killings based on either sexual orientation or gender identity get more than fifty

percent (50%) more space than do what the Kenya Police reported later that year to be 543 mob justice killings, with

the comparative word and line counts 318 to 206 and 38 to 23, respectively. The per capita comparison is based on

population estimates of 41 million for Kenya for 2011 and 64 million for the U.S. for 1892. For what it is worth:

Based on an estimate of 26.3 million for Kenya for 1993, the 508 lynchings reported in that year’s U.S. Department

of State Kenya country report on human rights practices give a per capita figure more than five times that of the U.S.

for 1892. That the number of Kenyan lynchings in 2012 may well have been greater than that in 2011 is based on the

fact that I have reports of a good number more lynchings in my 2012 media data than I do in my 2011 data.


17

least some measure of foreign aid cut, I find incredibly scandalous, given the attack on human

rights and dignity of even a far smaller number of such brutal mob murders. May the U.S. gov-

ernment be quicker to correct its effective lack of concern for Kenya’s lynching victims and their

families than was the U.S. Senate to apologize to America’s lynching victims and their families

for failure to even attempt to act against American lynchings.

Concerning the rest of the international community, I will say only and quickly three

things. First, the European Union appears more concerned about Kenya’s legal death penalty—

by hanging and not exercised since 1987—than it is about Kenya’s lynchings.106

Second, organi-

zations of which I would expect at least an historical pan-African concern for black lynchings

(e.g., the U.S.’s National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the African

Union), and even the international human rights community on the whole, appear to me ignorant

of, effectively indifferent to, or inexplicably muted in their responses to Kenya’s lynchings.

Third, and on a positive note, recent European scholarship is contributing greatly to the recogni-

tion of lynching as a serious, ongoing international problem rather than just one of American

history.107

Last but by no means least, concerning Kenya’s people, I see media evidence that some,

rather than addressing their country’s lynching problem as it deserves, are rather maintaining,

even augmenting, the magnitude of its scandal; at the same time, I see evidence of others work-

ing to stop the lynchings. Among the former are, those who directly perpetrate lynchings; others

who abet the perpetrators;108

spectators who make no attempt to interfere—some because fearful

for their own lives, but others caught smiling by photographers or described by reporters as cele-

brating the mob’s handiwork;109

people who speak or write to the media defending or excusing

lynchings;110

and yet others—perhaps the silent majority—apparently able to sit back, not get too

upset, and be a nation that lynches petty thieves, re-elects jumbos, and demonstrates against the

savage killing of wildlife.111

Among those working to stop the lynchings are, those who do at-

tempt to interfere—sometimes at the cost of their lives;112

journalists, clergy, and other members

of Kenyan civil society who speak to or write to or in the media decrying lynching;113

and, what

is very encouraging to me, children who reportedly sometimes, somehow manage better than

many adults either not to lynch or even to prevent a lynching.114

Seventh, lynchings in Kenya will, until they become the exception rather than the rule,

hinder Kenya’s development in the twenty-first century. Ida Wells-Barnett saw lynchings in the

American South of her day as indicative enough of general lawlessness that they would deter in-

vestment in the South: “What can you do, reader, to prevent lynching, to thwart anarchy and to

promote law and order throughout our land? … Bring to the intelligent consideration of Southern

people the refusal of capital to invest where lawlessness and mob violence hold sway.”115

Ken-

ya’s economy, though robust for sub-Saharan Africa, likely cannot afford much in the way of

boycotts and embargoes by the international community. Were foreign investment, foreign aid,

and foreign tourism to dry up significantly until lynchings virtually stopped, and until any few

that continued were regularly prosecuted and given serious judicial punishment, then Kenya’s

economic development might even be seriously hindered in the meantime.116

For newly-elected

President Uhuru Kenyatta to focus on wooing foreign investors and achieving double-digit eco-

nomic growth while Kenya continues to burn—and stone, beat, hack, and otherwise lynch hun-

dreds of human persons every year, with few if any presidential words on the subject117

—should

be enough to steer morally-responsible foreign aid agencies, investors, and tourists to countries

of the world more respectful of the human rights of their own citizens.


18

There are some media data, though perhaps few, that show conscious Kenyan awareness

that lynchings as a part of general insecurity either do or are liable to scare away investors from

areas where they occur.118

In this regard, general insecurity in a nation of thieves (recalling

Makau Mutua’s phrase) that lynches thieves regularly (not to mention alleged witches and oth-

ers), regarding them as vermin to be exterminated rather than as human persons (this is indeed

the view of at least some Kenyans who support mob justice killings),119

is hardly an atmosphere

conducive to business investment with a conscience.

It is impossible, in this paper, to begin to consider what effects lynchings in Kenya and

their various concomitants have on the Kenyan workforce. That said, it is difficult not to see one

of these concomitants—witchcraft ideas and practices that have witchcraft with both ontological-

ly lethal power and a leveling function—doing other than hindering Kenya from achieving its

economic development goals. As Peter Mwaura has written,

In a witchcraft culture [like Kenya’s as opposed to a science culture] people, both

educated and uneducated, wear good-luck charms and amulets to protect them-

selves and to attain good health, riches and prosperity. They visit witchdoctors

looking for miracle cures and solutions for their personal problems and economic

problems and ambitions. They look for magic, not science or technology. Instead

of working hard to improve their lot in life, they prefer to hunt down suspected

witches who they blame for their misfortunes, lynch them and burn their hous-

es.120

On the non-economic side of development, it is difficult to assess what continuing coars-

ening of Kenyans’ moral sensibilities there may be as a function of their continuing to lynch.

While America was still lynching, Frederick Douglass wrote the following to Ida Wells:

If the American conscience were only half alive, if the American church and cler-

gy were only half Christianized, if American moral sensibility were not hardened

by persistent infliction of outrage and crime against colored people, a scream of

horror, shame, and indignation would arise to heaven wherever your pamphlet

shall be read. But alas! even crime has power to reproduce itself and create condi-

tions favorable to its own existence.121

For Kenyan lynchings, I can imagine such reproductive, creative power in a recent photo-with-

caption that reported the lynching by burning of a suspected thief at Nakuru. In the photo’s

background, two men loiter against a wall, another walks away, some boys appear to be at play;

in the foreground, a young woman steps nimbly over part of the lynching victim’s ashes and oth-

er remains.122

What I believe sure is, that as long as Kenyans continue to lynch, Kenya will be

charged by many throughout the world as lacking civilization in the sense that America lacked it

as charged by Ida Wells-Barnett; what I believe sure is, Kenya will become known international-

ly as a nation of lynchers with much better reason than Clemens (1923) was sure that his home

state of Missouri would become such at the turn of the twentieth century:

And so Missouri has fallen, that great state! Certain of her children have joined

the lynchers, and the smirch is upon the rest of us. That handful of her children

have given us a character and labeled us with a name, and to the dwellers in the


19

four quarters of the earth we are “lynchers,” now, and ever shall be. For the world

will not stop and think—it never does, it is not its way; its way is to generalize

from a single sample. It will not say, “Those Missourians have been busy eighty

years in building an honorable good name for themselves; these hundred lynchers

down in the corner of the state are not real Missourians, they are renegades.” No,

the truth will not enter its mind; it will generalize from the one or two misleading

samples and say, “The Missourians are lynchers” (1923:239).

A robust economy is one thing; development of the spirit—of the type that issues in more equi-

table distribution of basic resources and few if any lynchings—is quite another. Security and eq-

uitable economic growth?—Yes, Kenya certainly needs both; but not at the price of continuing

to degrade and lose its national soul by lynchings and their concomitants.

3. Conclusion

Media reports of lynchings continue unabated through August 2013—e.g., a member of a

robber gang burned to death with some of the gasoline with which his gang had been threatening

its victims; a 35-year-old man stoned and clubbed to death in “zero tolerance” of his alleged theft

of three dozen teaspoons; the chief accountant at Kenya’s Department of Defence lynched with

two others in an apparent case of mistaken identity.123

A two-sentence Star article of August 19,

headlined ‘Mob justice killings on the rise,’ reports that “[a]bout 335 people have been killed

over the past seven months through mob justice killings,” but has Inspector General of Police

David Kimaiyo commenting only that “they will implement changes to laws on bail for suspects

to improve public safety.”124

If this 335 figure is for January-July and 2013 lynchings continue at

the same rate for the rest of the year, there will be about 577 lynchings in 2013, or about 1.58

persons lynched per day. In this light, I conclude with a suggestion regarding shame for lynch-

ings, then also with both a commendation and a challenge to Kenya’s press about reporting them.

‘We must organize a national day of shame’ is the title of a 2012 Nation opinion piece by

Father Gabriel Dolan, a Roman Catholic missionary to Kenya. As Dolan sees it, lack of due pri-

ority on the safety of Kenyans—shameful lack of respect for Kenyan lives—has led to too many

needless deaths by such culpable acts (including ones of neglect) as improper aircraft mainte-

nance, substandard building construction, failure to enforce or respect road safety rules, lynch-

ings, and the normalization of election violence.125

As best I know, through the end of August

2013, Kenya has not responded to Dolan’s call with a national day of shame for any of these.

Whether or not such a day is indeed part of the solution to the problem of Kenya’s lynchings, I

believe that, until Kenyans know deep personal and national shame for their country’s lynchings,

there is probably still, as a certain Nation article expressed more than five years ago, “no end in

sight to the lynching.”126

I commend Kenya’s press, as represented especially by the Nation, Standard, and Star,

for reporting and editorializing against lynchings.127

These are indeed a sensitive subject,128

I do

not know what off-and-on pressures there may have been through the years against reporting

them, and I could not have written more than a fraction of the present paper without this Kenyan

reporting. Also, if Wells-Barnett (2002) is to be believed on the subject, “The people must know

before they can act, and there is no educator to compare with the press” (2002:52). If Kenya does

at some point stop lynching, the country’s press will likely have played a great role in this victo-

ry for Kenyans’ human rights.


20

At the same time, I challenge Kenya’s press to do ever better, for the human dignity of all

Kenyans. Nowhere in the world, including the West, do self-centered, self-serving people, in or

outside government, not need the press to hold their feet to the fire over the rights of the poor,

the weak, and the defenseless (including the criminal poor). Do report all lynchings of which you

become aware, but never again, please, in any version of your papers, report the lynching of a

human person as a mere brief or photo-with-caption129

—not even if you lack most of the story’s

details. Recognize that, in the broadest humanistic sense of the Rebel’s words in Aimé Césaire’s

(1958) Et les chiens se taisaient, “In the whole world no poor devil is lynched, no wretch is tor-

tured, in whom I am not degraded and murdered” (1958:70).z Agree belatedly, concerning Ken-

ya, with U.S. Congressman John Lewis (2010) of Georgia, that, “We must prevent anything like

this from ever happening again” (2010:7). At the very least, by way of concrete action, create a

front-page, Kenyan-newspaper equivalent of the black banner that cried for a time from the win-

dow of the NAACP’s New York offices at each fresh American lynching outrage, “A man [i.e., a

human person] was lynched yesterday.”

z The English translation of this Césaire quote is widely-published without attribution. The French original is, « Il

n’y a pas dans le monde un pauvre type lynché, un pauvre homme torturé, en qui je ne sois assassiné et humilié. »


21

Appendix 1

April-August 2013 news pieces that report, on average, over 1.2 lynched persons per day

Recorded lynchings of blacks [in the United States] had decreased in the first

years of the new century, from 105 in 1901 to 57 in 1905, but at an average of

more than one a week [75.4/year for 1900-1919 = 1.45/week] the practice re-

mained an unwelcome fixture of American life (Dray 2002:143).

Date of piece

Media source Title of piece Number of persons

reported or sus-

pected lynched

Alleged crime(s)

of the victims

Reported meth-

od(s) of lynching

2 Apr 2013 Star Residents blame

cops for Limuru

insecurity

1 shopbreaking beat

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-114914/residents-blame-cops-limuru-insecurity

3 Apr 2013 Nation Digital, 11 Lynching victim’s

body under pile of

stones

1 possession of sto-

len good; thus

also, mugging,

robbery, homicide

(“found with a

handset belonging

to a man who was

mugged and later

died in hospital”)

stoned

3 Apr 2013 Star Thug was lynched

in Ongata Rongai

1 attempted robbery N/R

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-115160/thug-was-lynched-ongata-rongai

5 Apr 2013 Star Mob lynches iron

sheets thief

1 theft stoned

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-115454/mob-lynches-iron-sheets-thief

5 Apr 2013 Star Supermarket rob-

ber lynched in

Ngong

1 attempted shop-

breaking

beat

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-115442/supermarket-robber-lynched-ngong

7 Apr 2013 Star Kayole residents

lynch thugs

3 attempted robbery stoned

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-115617/kayole-residents-lynch-thugs

8 Apr 2013 Star Man lynched in

love triangle

1 adultery (“having

an affair with a

married woman”)

beat

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-115717/man-lynched-love-triangle

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-114914/residents-blame-cops-limuru-insecurity


http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-115454/mob-lynches-iron-sheets-thief

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-115442/supermarket-robber-lynched-ngong

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-115617/kayole-residents-lynch-thugs

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-115717/man-lynched-love-triangle


22

8 Apr 2013 Nation Digital, 16 Sisters accused of

witchcraft lynched

2 murder by witch-

craft

“gang-raped then

lynched … sus-

tained deep cuts

on their heads”

10 Apr 2013 Star Two people were

killed in Nairobi


http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-116111/two-people-were-killed-nairobi

11 Apr 2013 Star Mob lynches Nan-

di dad who killed

his two sons

1 murder stoned

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-116221/mob-lynches-nandi-dad-who-killed-his-two-sons

12 Apr 2013 Star Mob lynches sus-

pected thief

1 theft burned

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-116398/mob-lynches-suspected-thief

13 Apr 2013 Nation Digital, 10 Two lynched over

spate of robberies

2 members of terror

gang, robbery

N/R

15 Apr 2013 Star Mbeere phone

thief lynched

1 robbery, attempted

rape

stoned

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-116646/mbeere-phone-thief-lynched

16 Apr 2013 Star Man lynched for

bestiality

1 bestiality N/R

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-116834/man-lynched-bestiality

16 Apr 2013 Star Three held for

lynching woman

in Mwingi

1

N.B: The aptness

of ‘lynching’ is

questionable here:

the victim is re-

ported to have

been killed be-

cause she attempt-

ed to serve court

papers in a family

land dispute.

none? theft by

legal means? (see

note at left)

N/R

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-116841/three-held-lynching-woman-mwingi

18 Apr 2013 Star Suspected gang-

ster killed in

Mombasa


http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-117316/suspected-gangster-killed-mombasa

19 Apr 2013 Nation Digital, 32 Gangster lynched

in botched robbery

1 attempted robbery beat; body set

ablaze

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-116111/two-people-were-killed-nairobi

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-116221/mob-lynches-nandi-dad-who-killed-his-two-sons

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-116398/mob-lynches-suspected-thief

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-116646/mbeere-phone-thief-lynched

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-116834/man-lynched-bestiality

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-116841/three-held-lynching-woman-mwingi

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-117316/suspected-gangster-killed-mombasa


23

22 Apr 2013 Star Four arrested over

killing of college

students

2 murder stoned (1) [not

reported (1)]

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-117761/four-arrested-over-killing-college-students, http://www.the-

star.co.ke/news/article-117618/two-students-killed-eldoret; but see also, from two months later, http://www.the-

star.co.ke/news/article-129143/1000-street-people-flushed-out-eldoret-cbd-swoop

22 Apr 2013 Star Ruto donates

Sh1million for

AIC’s prayer cen-

tre

1 robbery; behind a

criminal cartel

“roughed up”

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-117646/ruto-donates-sh1million-aics-prayer-centre

22 Apr 2013 Nation Digital, 16 Vigilante group

kills two suspects

in raid

2 robbery beat (1); slashed,

clobbered (1)

24 Apr 2013 Star Man slashes

brother to death in

Kirinyaga row

1 murder beat; body set

ablaze

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-118018/man-slashes-brother-death-kirinyaga-row

25 Apr 2013 Star Locals lynch two

robbers

2 robbery beat

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-118246/locals-lynch-two-robbers

27 Apr 2013 Nation Digital, 10 Villagers lynch

man for stealing

and selling cow

1 theft, sale of stolen

property

N/R

27 Apr 2013 Star Suspected burglar

killed by Busia

mob attack

1 shopbreaking,

attempted robbery

slashed with ma-

chetes

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-118573/suspected-burglar-killed-busia-mob-attack

29 Apr 2013 Standard Thugs attack three

villages, injure

125

2 multiple assaults stoned (1); beat,

etc. (1)

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/m/story.php?id=2000082598&pageNo=1; see also ‘Gangsters killed after village attack,’ Nation

Digital, 29 Apr 2013, 18

29 Apr 2013 Nation Digital, 18 Man lynched for

theft of chickens

1 theft N/R

1 May 2013 Nation Digital, 9 Residents lynch

armed robbers

2 attempted shop-

breaking

stoned, clobbered

with rungus

2 May 2013 Star Robber killed by

city mob

1 robbery burned

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-118883/robber-killed-city-mob

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-117761/four-arrested-over-killing-college-students

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-117618/two-students-killed-eldoret

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-117618/two-students-killed-eldoret

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-129143/1000-street-people-flushed-out-eldoret-cbd-swoop

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-129143/1000-street-people-flushed-out-eldoret-cbd-swoop

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-117646/ruto-donates-sh1million-aics-prayer-centre

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-118018/man-slashes-brother-death-kirinyaga-row

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-118246/locals-lynch-two-robbers

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-118573/suspected-burglar-killed-busia-mob-attack

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/m/story.php?id=2000082598&pageNo=1

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-118883/robber-killed-city-mob


24

3 May 2013 Star Two people killed

in robbery – Kise-

rian

1 robbery, murder N/R

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-118998/two-people-killed-robbery-kiserian

5 May 2013 Nation 6 killed in banditry

attack by suspect-

ed Tanzania mili-

tia

3 cross-border ban-

ditry

N/R

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/africa/-/1066/1842654/-/15dfssmz/-/index.html; ‘Loliondo families want bodies back,’ Tanzania

Daily News, 22 May 2013, by Marc Nkwame, http://allafrica.com/stories/201305220330.html

6 May 2013 Star Kilifi villagers

blame police

1 theft N/R

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-119237/kilifi-villagers-blame-police

7 May 2013 Star Murder suspect

lynched in Rawa

1 murder beat, burned

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-119446/murder-suspect-lynched-rawa

7 May 2013 Nation 10 killed as mobs

mete out justice

10 various in eight

separate inci-

dents—e.g., rob-

bery, theft, in-

volvement in a

crime

beat (2), stoned

(2), N/R (6)

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/10-killed-as-mobs-mete-out-justice/-/1056/1845634/-/wxyjdk/-/index.html

8 May 2013 Standard Mourners kill

teacher over love

affair with bish-

op’s wife

1 adultery beat

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000083213&story_title=mourners-kill-teacher-over-love-affair-with-bishop-s-wife

8 May 2013 Standard Residents’ concern

as insecurity esca-

lates

2 member of a ter-

ror-robber gang;

multiple assaults,

theft

burned

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000083249&story_title=residents-concern-as-insecurity-escalates; see also

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-119732/2-suspected-thieves-killed

9 May 2013 Star Imenti mob lynch

man

1 witchcraft N/R

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-119702/imenti-mob-lynch-man

10 May 2013 Nation Digital, 19 Villagers stone

two robbers to

death

2 “behind a spate of

robberies”

stoned

but see also, regarding the victims’ alleged crime(s), http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-119914/mob-lynches-two-buglars

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-118998/two-people-killed-robbery-kiserian

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/africa/-/1066/1842654/-/15dfssmz/-/index.html

http://allafrica.com/stories/201305220330.html

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-119237/kilifi-villagers-blame-police

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-119446/murder-suspect-lynched-rawa


http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000083213&story_title=mourners-kill-teacher-over-love-affair-with-bishop-s-wife

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000083249&story_title=residents-concern-as-insecurity-escalates

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-119732/2-suspected-thieves-killed

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-119702/imenti-mob-lynch-man

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-119914/mob-lynches-two-buglars


25

13 May 2013 Nation Suspect lynched

after attack on

residents

1 theft, murder beat; body set

ablaze

http://www.nation.co.ke/Counties/Suspect-lynched-after-attack-on-residents/-/1107872/1851078/-/1fl7p0/-/index.html,

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-120059/bungoma-residents-lynch-suspected-thug

14 May 2013 Star Two suspected

thieves killed

2 theft N/R

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-120289/two-suspected-thieves-killed

15 May 2013 Star Residents kill

eight suspects

8 in relation to a

spate of terror

gang attacks (in

Bungoma & per-

haps Busia as

well—see above)

burned (2), N/R

(6)

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-120428/residents-kill-eight-suspects;see also

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000083778&story_title=eight-lynched-over-bungoma-killings and ‘Woman linked

to attack on trader lynched,’ Nation Digital, 17 May 2013, 5

16 May 2013 Star Residents kill

suspect

1 member of robber

gang

N/R

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-120587/residents-kill-suspect

20 May 2013 Star Boda boda man

lynched just before

marriage

1 thug N/R

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-121034/boda-boda-man-lynched-just-marriage

23 May 2013 Star Crime roundup 1 attempted shop-

breaking

N/R

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-121417/crime-roundup

24 May 2013 Nation Digital, 20 Villagers lynch

two caught house-

breaking

2 attempted house-

breaking

N/R

see also http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-121681/kisum-town-mob-lynch-two-suspects, where the lynchings reported by

the Nation and Star appear to be the same ones

24 May 2013 Star Missing boy’s

body found

1 theft N/R

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-121671/missing-boys-body-found

26 May 2013 Standard Late Court of Ap-

peal Judge’s son

dies in a road ac-

cident

1 housebreaking stoned

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000084515&story_title=late-court-of-appeal-judge-s-son-dies-in-a-road-

accident&pageNo=1

http://www.nation.co.ke/Counties/Suspect-lynched-after-attack-on-residents/-/1107872/1851078/-/1fl7p0/-/index.html

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-120059/bungoma-residents-lynch-suspected-thug

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-120289/two-suspected-thieves-killed

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-120428/residents-kill-eight-suspects

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000083778&story_title=eight-lynched-over-bungoma-killings

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-120587/residents-kill-suspect

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-121034/boda-boda-man-lynched-just-marriage

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-121417/crime-roundup

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-121681/kisum-town-mob-lynch-two-suspects

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-121671/missing-boys-body-found

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000084515&story_title=late-court-of-appeal-judge-s-son-dies-in-a-road-accident&pageNo=1

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000084515&story_title=late-court-of-appeal-judge-s-son-dies-in-a-road-accident&pageNo=1


26

28 May 2013 Star Suspects serial

Killer murdered in

Mwatate

1 murder hacked

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-122047/suspects-serial-killer-murdered-mwatate

28 May 2013 Nation Boda boda motor-

cyclists killed in

crime wave

2 murder, robbery;

gang members

stoned

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/1865542/-/w4lhcxz/-/index.html; but see also, concerning what may or not be the same

lynchings, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-122406/stop-mob-justice-dc-tells-mwingi-residents

30 May 2013 Nation Digital, 20 Man kills brother

as mob lynches

suspect

1 member of theft

gang

“beat him up and

set his body on

fire”

30 May 2013 Star Suspected witch-

doctor found dead

outside Ganze bar

1

N.B.: The local

DO is reported as

saying the victim

“may have been

killed on witch-

craft allegations”

and “cautioned the

public against

taking the law into

their hands.”

witchcraft throat slit

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-122414/suspected-witchdoctor-found-dead-outside-ganze-bar

30 May 2013 Star Suspected thug is

lynched in Ruai


http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-122358/suspected-thug-lynched-ruai

31 May 2013 Nation Robbery suspect

cheats death in

hospital attack

1

N.B.: “Police sus-

pect [the deceased]

was beaten to

death by a mob.”

N/R? beat

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Robbery-suspect-cheats-death-in-hospital-attack-/-/1056/1867620/-/gnp6stz/-/index.html

31 May 2013 Nation Digital, 18 Villagers lynch

man linked to

robberies

1 member of robber

gang

hacked; hanged

victim’s body on a

tree

31 May 2013 Nation Residents lynch

three gunmen

3 armed gang mem-

bers

beat; burned bod-

ies (or burned?)

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/1868914/-/w4jbc7z/-/index.html; see also, from 1 Jun 2013 and 13 Jun 2013, respectively,

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-122683/three-thugs-lynched-guns-seized-kitale and http://www.the-

star.co.ke/news/article-124167/arms-ug-says-cops-chief

2 Jun 2013 Nation Digital, 52 Five killed as ban-

dits raid village

1 robbery N/R

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-122047/suspects-serial-killer-murdered-mwatate

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/1865542/-/w4lhcxz/-/index.html

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-122406/stop-mob-justice-dc-tells-mwingi-residents


http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-122358/suspected-thug-lynched-ruai

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Robbery-suspect-cheats-death-in-hospital-attack-/-/1056/1867620/-/gnp6stz/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/1868914/-/w4jbc7z/-/index.html

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-124167/arms-ug-says-cops-chief

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-124167/arms-ug-says-cops-chief


27

3 Jun 2013 Star Robber lynched in

Embu

1 attempted robbery burned

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-122797/robber-lynched-embu

4 Jun 2013 Nation Digital, 6 Residents lynch

suspected mugger

1 robbery beat, burned

4 Jun 2013 Nation Digital, 11 Suspect lynched as

raid at pastor’s

fails

1 housebreaking slashed

4 Jun 2013 Star Child killed in

Gatanga fire

1 burglar N/R

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-122990/child-killed-gatanga-fire

4 Jun 2013 Star Lynching rampant

in Migori

1 robbery, murder beat, burned

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-123017/lynching-rampant-migori

4 Jun 2013 Standard Man lynched for

stealing spoons

1 theft stoned, beat

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/entertainment/pulse/77/crazy-world/509/man-lynched-for-stealing-spoons

5 Jun 2013 Nation Digital, 6 Tanzanian lynched

over rider’s killing


6 Jun 2013 Star Thief lynched by

Embu residents

1 robbery knocked from tree,

burned

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-123306/thief-lynched-embu-residents

10 Jun 2013 Nation Digital, 19 Two cattle thieves

killed by mob

2 theft N/R

11 Jun 2013 Nation Digital, 16 ‘Notorious’ robber

lynched by villag-

ers

1 “notorious robber” beat

11 Jun 2013 Nation Digital, 20 Man lynched for

rape of pregnant

woman

1 rape (also assault?) beat

12 Jun 2013 Nation Digital, 20 Residents lynch

man in coffee theft

drama

1 theft beat

see also http://www.nation.co.ke/Counties/Thugs-raid-coffee-factory/-/1107872/1888184/-/14x3i2t/-/index.html

12 Jun 2013 Star Police chief ig-

nores alarm

1 assault N/R

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-124013/police-chief-ignores-alarm


http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-122990/child-killed-gatanga-fire

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-123017/lynching-rampant-migori


http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-123306/thief-lynched-embu-residents

http://www.nation.co.ke/Counties/Thugs-raid-coffee-factory/-/1107872/1888184/-/14x3i2t/-/index.html

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-124013/police-chief-ignores-alarm


28

13 Jun 2013 Star Crime roundup 1 attempted robbery N/R

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-124090/crime-round

13 Jun 2013 Nation Digital, 11 Villagers lynches

two violent rob-

bers [sic]


14 Jun 2013 Star Robbers lynched

in Kirinyaga

3 housebreaking,

attempted robbery

burned

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-124309/robbers-lynched-kirinyaga

20 Jun 2013 Star Residents kill

suspected thief

1 attempted theft burned

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-125040/residents-kill-suspected-thief

20 Jun 2013 Star Migori police fight

mob justice

3 attempted theft—

viz., refusal to pay

for a Sh30 meal—

& destruction of

property—viz.,

burned down the

house of the ven-

dor concerned;

theft; attempted

theft

beat, burned (2);

burned (1)

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-125054/migori-police-fight-mob-justice

20 Jun 2013 Star Residents warned

over witchcraft

1 witchcraft N/R

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-125000/residents-warned-over-witchcraft

21 Jun 2013 Standard Bungoma families

fear killer gangs

could strike back

with vengeance

10

N.B.: These are

ones not reported

elsewhere? (See

May 2013 lynch-

ings that respond-

ed to attacks on

villages in Busia

and Bungoma.)

assault, murder N/R

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000086517&story_title=bungoma-families-fear-killer-gangs-could-strike-back-

with-vengeance&pageNo=1

24 Jun 2013 Standard ‘Witchdoctor’

buried alive over

son’s death

1 witchcraft, murder beat, burned, bur-

ied alive

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/entertainment/pulse/77/crazy-world/719/witchdoctor-buried-alive-over-sons-death

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-124090/crime-round

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-124309/robbers-lynched-kirinyaga

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-125040/residents-kill-suspected-thief

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-125054/migori-police-fight-mob-justice

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-125000/residents-warned-over-witchcraft

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000086517&story_title=bungoma-families-fear-killer-gangs-could-strike-back-with-vengeance&pageNo=1




29

25 Jun 2013 Nation Digital, 10 Man lynched in

boda boda rider

stab claim

1 assault N/R

see also http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-125601/motorbike-thief-lynched

25 Jun 2013 Star Man dies escaping

crazed Embu mob

1 theft beat, burned

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-125548/man-dies-escaping-crazed-embu-mob

26 Jun 2013 Star Armed robbers

killed in Samia

2 robbery stoned

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-125753/armed-robbers-killed-samia

28 Jun 2013 Nation Digital, 20 Mob lynches man

linked to theft

gang

1 gang member,

assault, robbery

assault with “all

manner of weap-

ons,” burned

see also both http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000086915&story_title=chicken-thief-sentenced-to-one-year-

imprisonment and http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-126050/suspect-pulled-out-embu-matatu-lynched

28 Jun 2013 Star Local kill suspect-

ed thief [sic]

1 theft N/R

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-126079/local-kill-suspected-thief

29 Jun 2013 Standard Mob burns to

death University 2

over laptop theft

2 theft burned (2)

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000087093&story_title=mob-burns-to-death-university-2-over-laptop-theft

29 Jun 2013 Nation Four killed in

renewed Mandera

fighting

5 gang members,

housebreaking

N/R (5)

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/1899418/-/w2o499z/-/index.html; see also

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000087230&story_title=Kenya-

Kenya:%20Seven%20gangsters%20killed%20in%20separate%20incidents

1 Jul 2013 Star Two lynched in

Kilifi over live-

stock theft

2 theft beat, burned (1);

N/R (1)

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-126329/two-lynched-kilifi-over-livestock-theft

2 Jul 2013 Star Suspected thief

stoned to death

1 attempted theft stoned

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-126526/suspected-thief-stoned-death; concerning which lynched person, see also

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-126691/villagers-fear-thiefs-spirit

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-125601/motorbike-thief-lynched

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-125548/man-dies-escaping-crazed-embu-mob

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-125753/armed-robbers-killed-samia

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000086915&story_title=chicken-thief-sentenced-to-one-year-imprisonment

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000086915&story_title=chicken-thief-sentenced-to-one-year-imprisonment

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-126050/suspect-pulled-out-embu-matatu-lynched

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-126079/local-kill-suspected-thief

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000087093&story_title=mob-burns-to-death-university-2-over-laptop-theft

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/1899418/-/w2o499z/-/index.html

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000087230&story_title=Kenya-Kenya:%20Seven%20gangsters%20killed%20in%20separate%20incidents

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000087230&story_title=Kenya-Kenya:%20Seven%20gangsters%20killed%20in%20separate%20incidents

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-126329/two-lynched-kilifi-over-livestock-theft

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-126526/suspected-thief-stoned-death

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-126691/villagers-fear-thiefs-spirit


30

4 Jul 2013 Nation Gangsters kill 12

in night raid on

village

3 assault, murder beat (lit., “clob-

bered”), perhaps

burned (3)

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Gangsters-kill-12-in-night-raid-on-village-/-/1056/1905316/-/llwvp7z/-/index.html; see also

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000087510&story_title=village-in-shock-after-gang-descends-on-homes-and-kills-12-in-

cold-blood, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-126995/raiders-kill-15-mwingi-over-family-land-dispute,

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000087655&story_title=revenge-as-youth-lynch-wife-gang-leader-s-mother,

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-127233/hunt-down-killers-musila-tells-irate-locals

5 Jul 2013 Nation Digital, 11 Police probe death

of boda boda op-

erator

1

N.B.: This appears

to be a lynching,

though the article

withholds judg-

ment pending

investigation.

attempted theft N/R

6 Jul 2013 Nation Residents lynch

killer’s wife and

mother

3 mother and wife of

a murderer, feast-

ing while the mur-

derer’s dozen vic-

tims were being

mourned; gangster

burned (2); N/R

(1)

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Residents-lynch-killers-wife-and-mother/-/1056/1906314/-/lqhtg5z/-/index.html;

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000087655&story_title=revenge-as-youth-lynch-wife-gang-leader-s-mother,

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-127145/mp-promises-sh100000-finder-mwingi-killer,

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000087750&story_title=he-threatened-to-kill-us-over-land-brother-to-gang-leader-

says&pageNo=1

9 Jul 2013 Standard Mob lynch thief,

tie stolen sheep on

his body

1 theft stoned

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000087942&story_title=Kenya-mob-lynch-thief-tie-stolen-sheep-on-his-body

12 Jul 2013 Star Mob kills three in

Muhoroni

3 thieves, “known

criminals who

have been terroris-

ing the communi-

ty”

N/R

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-127907/mob-kills-three-muhoroni, see also

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/ktn/video/watch/2000067622/-four-suspects-lynched-in-muhoroni

15 Jul 2013 Nation Digital, 19 Villagers burn

man to death over

wife’s killing

1 murder burned

15 Jul 2013 Star Mob kills suspect 1 homicide N/R

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-128102/mob-kills-suspect

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Gangsters-kill-12-in-night-raid-on-village-/-/1056/1905316/-/llwvp7z/-/index.html

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000087510&story_title=village-in-shock-after-gang-descends-on-homes-and-kills-12-in-cold-blood

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000087510&story_title=village-in-shock-after-gang-descends-on-homes-and-kills-12-in-cold-blood

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-126995/raiders-kill-15-mwingi-over-family-land-dispute

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000087655&story_title=revenge-as-youth-lynch-wife-gang-leader-s-mother

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Residents-lynch-killers-wife-and-mother/-/1056/1906314/-/lqhtg5z/-/index.html

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000087655&story_title=revenge-as-youth-lynch-wife-gang-leader-s-mother

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-127145/mp-promises-sh100000-finder-mwingi-killer

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000087750&story_title=he-threatened-to-kill-us-over-land-brother-to-gang-leader-says&pageNo=1

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000087750&story_title=he-threatened-to-kill-us-over-land-brother-to-gang-leader-says&pageNo=1

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000087942&story_title=Kenya-mob-lynch-thief-tie-stolen-sheep-on-his-body

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-127907/mob-kills-three-muhoroni

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/ktn/video/watch/2000067622/-four-suspects-lynched-in-muhoroni

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-128102/mob-kills-suspect


31

16 Jul 2013 Nation Digital, 20 Boy lynched in

raid on girls’

school

1

N.B.: The murder

concerned may

have been commit-

ted by the school’s

principal and two

watchmen rather

than a mob of

villagers, and thus

it will not be

classed a lynching

by police?

trespassing beat

see also http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-128664/tragic-end-boy-caught-girls-dorm

16 Jul 2013 Star Provide proof,

public told

1 criminal suspect

bonded by a court

to keep peace for

one year

N/R

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-128308/provide-proof-public-told

18 Jul 2013 Star Matatu tout killed,

robber lynched in

Machakos town 1 robbery, assault

(that resulted in a

death)

beat, burned

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-128562/matatu-tout-killed-robber-lynched-machakos-town

19 Jul 2013 Star Man dies after

mob beating

1 theft assault with crude

weapons

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-128715/man-dies-after-mob-beating

21 Jul 2013 Star Suspected goat

thief lynched

1 theft beat

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-128849/suspected-goat-thief-lynched

23 Jul 2013 Star Mob justice is

unlawful, says top

cop

N/R N/R N/R

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-129165/mob-justice-unlawful-says-top-cop; see also, for just three Muhoroni lynchings

clearly reported elsewhere in the present figure’s data, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-127907/mob-kills-three-muhoroni

23 Jul 2013 Standard Mob lynches sus-

pect for stealing

from ‘boda boda’

operators

1 conspiracy to

commit theft

beat

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000089154&story_title=mob-lynches-suspect-for-stealing-from-boda-boda-

operators

26 Jul 2013 Nation Digital, 20 Mob lynches three

linked to crime

wave


http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-128664/tragic-end-boy-caught-girls-dorm

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-128308/provide-proof-public-told

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-128562/matatu-tout-killed-robber-lynched-machakos-town

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-128715/man-dies-after-mob-beating

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-128849/suspected-goat-thief-lynched

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-129165/mob-justice-unlawful-says-top-cop

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-127907/mob-kills-three-muhoroni

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000089154&story_title=mob-lynches-suspect-for-stealing-from-boda-boda-operators

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000089154&story_title=mob-lynches-suspect-for-stealing-from-boda-boda-operators


32

29 Jul 2013 Nation Body of missing

man found in river

1 homicide N/R

http://www.nation.co.ke/Counties/Body-of-missing-man-found-in-river/-/1107872/1930716/-/5io2g/-/index.html

30 Jul 2013 Nation Two killed as

police gun down

five

1 robbery N/R

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Police-gun-down-five-gangsters/-/1056/1932276/-/10jrw7l/-/index.html

2 Aug 2013 Nation Police issue warn-

ing as 20 youth are

shot dead

3 robbery beat

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Police-issue-warning-as--20-youth-are-shot-dead/-/1056/1935404/-/cpog65/-/index.html

2 Aug 2013 Nation Missing girl's

body found

dumped in thicket

2 rape (1); gang

member, robbery

(1)

N/R

http://www.nation.co.ke/Counties/Missing-girls-body-found-dumped-in-thicket-/-/1107872/1934802/-/60421qz/-/index.html;

concerning the rape-related lynching, see also http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-131130/villagers-kill-rapist-after-he-

confesses

2 Aug 2013 Star Mob killings rise

in Oyugis

1 behind a series of

killings

N/R

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-130553/mob-killings-rise-oyugis

3 Aug 2013 Star Two thugs lynched

in Mbeere South

district

2 attempted robbery beat

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-130661/two-thugs-lynched-mbeere-south-district

8 Aug 2013 Standard Managers of a

Nairobi company

thwart robbery

attempt, kill gang-

sters

1 robbery N/R

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000090432&story_title=managers-thwart-robbery-attempt-kill-gangsters

9 Aug 2013 Star Aunt defends

lynched boys

2 theft beat

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-131330/aunt-defends-lynched-boys

10 Aug 2013 Star Transformer thief

lynched

1 theft N/R

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-131491/transformer-thief-lynched

http://www.nation.co.ke/Counties/Body-of-missing-man-found-in-river/-/1107872/1930716/-/5io2g/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Police-gun-down-five-gangsters/-/1056/1932276/-/10jrw7l/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Police-issue-warning-as--20-youth-are-shot-dead/-/1056/1935404/-/cpog65/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/Counties/Missing-girls-body-found-dumped-in-thicket-/-/1107872/1934802/-/60421qz/-/index.html

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-131130/villagers-kill-rapist-after-he-confesses#sthash.T1IIAcuq.dpuf

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-131130/villagers-kill-rapist-after-he-confesses#sthash.T1IIAcuq.dpuf

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-130553/mob-killings-rise-oyugis

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-130661/two-thugs-lynched-mbeere-south-district

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000090432&story_title=managers-thwart-robbery-attempt-kill-gangsters

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-131330/aunt-defends-lynched-boys

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-131491/transformer-thief-lynched


33

12 Aug 2013 Nation Police, public kill

nine in crime war

4

N.B.: The article

reports six lynched

but only provides

any detail concern-

ing four.

attempted robbery

(3); theft (1)

beat (1); N/R (3)

http://www.nation.co.ke/Counties/Police+public+kill+nine+in+crime+war/-/1107872/1945908/-/1hj898z/-/index.html; see also

both http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/m/story.php?articleID=2000090789&story_title=Police-alarmed-by-increasing-cases-of-

mob-justice and http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-131710/suspected-thug-lynched-mob

12 Aug 2013 Standard Mob lynch sus-

pected thief in

Taita-Taveta

1 theft, gang mem-

ber

N/R

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000090800&story_title=mob-lynch-suspected-thief

12 Aug 2013 Star Residents burn

theft suspect

1 theft beat, burned

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-131582/residents-burn-theft-suspect

14 Aug 2013 KTN Newsdesk Suspected thief

lynched in Nakuru

1 robbery beat, burned

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/ktn/video/watch/2000068824/-suspected-thief-lynched-in-nakuru

14 Aug 2013 KTN Prime Twins lynched in

Kayole, Nairobi

1

N.B.: The other

twin was reported

critically wound-

ed.

member of a rob-

ber gang

N/R

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/ktn/video/watch/2000068808/-twins-lynched-in-kayole-nairobi

14 Aug 2013 Nation Fighting off police

to get to criminals

1 attempted robbery stoned

http://www.nation.co.ke/counties/Fighting+off+police+to+get+to+criminals/-/1107872/1952524/-/8lp0qpz/-/index.html

14 Aug 2013 Nation Mob kills military

man in a case of

mistaken identity

3 beat; bodies

burned

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Mob-burns-three-men--by-mistake/-/1056/1948554/-/6ai3ls/-/index.html, but see also

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-132298/migori-police-probe-lynching-dod-worker

16 Aug 2013 Nation Digital, 11 Suspected cattle

thief set on fire

1 theft burned

20 Aug 2013 Star Two Bungoma

murder suspects

lynched

2 brandishing a fire-

arm, murder; ter-

ror gang activity,

murder

beat (1); stoned (1)

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-132714/two-bungoma-murder-suspects-lynched

http://www.nation.co.ke/Counties/Police+public+kill+nine+in+crime+war/-/1107872/1945908/-/1hj898z/-/index.html

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/m/story.php?articleID=2000090789&story_title=Police-alarmed-by-increasing-cases-of-mob-justice

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/m/story.php?articleID=2000090789&story_title=Police-alarmed-by-increasing-cases-of-mob-justice

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-131710/suspected-thug-lynched-mob

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000090800&story_title=mob-lynch-suspected-thief

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-131582/residents-burn-theft-suspect

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/ktn/video/watch/2000068824/-suspected-thief-lynched-in-nakuru

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/ktn/video/watch/2000068808/-twins-lynched-in-kayole-nairobi

http://www.nation.co.ke/counties/Fighting+off+police+to+get+to+criminals/-/1107872/1952524/-/8lp0qpz/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Mob-burns-three-men--by-mistake/-/1056/1948554/-/6ai3ls/-/index.html


http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-132714/two-bungoma-murder-suspects-lynched


34

21 Aug 2013 Nation Digital,

6—photo by Jim-

son Ndung’u, with

caption

Suspect set ablaze 1 attempted theft burned

26 Aug 2013 Star Boda bodas lynch

Limuru bike thief

1 theft stoned, beat

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-133474/boda-bodas-lynch-limuru-bike-thief

26 Aug 2013 Star Suspect on police

radar

1 shopbreaking (at-

tempted robbery as

well?)

N/R

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-133501/suspect-police-radar

26 Aug 2013 Star AP killed by mob

after shooting dead

trader in Marakwet

1 assault (not homi-

cide)

stoned

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-133551/ap-killed-mob-after-shooting-dead-trader-marakwet; see also http://www.the-

star.co.ke/news/article-133606/ap-killed-mob-after-shooting-trader,

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/m/story.php?articleID=2000091993&story_title=Mob-lynches-AP-after-he-shoots-student, ‘AP

stoned to death after shooting waiter,’ Nation Digital, 28 Aug 2013, 19

27 Aug 2013 Nation Digital, 9 One killed as

guards thwart shop

burglary

1 attempted burglary beat

29 Aug 2013 Star Molo pair lynched

for cattle raid

2 attempted theft N/R

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-133955/molo-pair-lynched-cattle-raid

31 Aug 2013 Star Nakuru wants

crime wave

stemmed

1 attempted theft N/R

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-134236/nakuru-wants-crime-wave-stemmed

N/R = not reported, whether distinctly from other reports or at all

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-133474/boda-bodas-lynch-limuru-bike-thief

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-133501/suspect-police-radar

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-133551/ap-killed-mob-after-shooting-dead-trader-marakwet

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-133606/ap-killed-mob-after-shooting-trader

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-133606/ap-killed-mob-after-shooting-trader

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/m/story.php?articleID=2000091993&story_title=Mob-lynches-AP-after-he-shoots-student

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-133955/molo-pair-lynched-cattle-raid

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-134236/nakuru-wants-crime-wave-stemmed


35

Appendix 2

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Relevant (or arguably relevant) articles

http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml

Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason

and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2: Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinc-

tion of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national

or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the

basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a

person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation

of sovereignty.

Article 3: Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 5: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 6: Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 7: All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of

the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declara-

tion and against any incitement to such discrimination.

Article 8: Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts vio-

lating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

Article 9: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Article 10: Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impar-

tial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against

him.

Article 11: (1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved

guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his

defence. (2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission

which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it

was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the

time the penal offence was committed.

Article 12: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or corre-

spondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection

of the law against such interference or attacks.

Article 22: Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization,

through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and

resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity

and the free development of his personality.

Article 25: (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of

himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary so-

cial services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widow-

hood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. (2) …

http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml


36

Appendix 3

Societal abuses, discrimination, and violence in the U.S. Department of State’s

2011 Kenya country report on human rights practices

(see http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/186418.pdf, 40-41, accessed 17 Jun 2013)

Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence

Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

Other Societal Violence or Discrimination

The penal code criminalizes “carnal knowledge against the

order of nature,” which is interpreted to prohibit consensual

same-sex sexual activity and specifies a maximum penalty of

14 years’ imprisonment. A separate statute specifically crimi-

nalizes sex between men and specifies a maximum penalty of

21 years’ imprisonment. Police detained persons under these

laws, particularly suspected sex workers, but released them

shortly afterward. There were no reported prosecutions of in-

dividuals for same-sex sexual activity during the year.

LGBT advocacy organizations, such as the Gay and Lesbian

Coalition of Kenya (GALCK), were permitted to register and

conduct activities. However, societal discrimination based on

sexual orientation was widespread and resulted in loss of em-

ployment and educational opportunities. Violence against the

LGBT community also occurred, particularly in rural areas and

among refugees. NGO groups reported that police intervened

to stop attacks but were not generally sympathetic to LGBT

individuals or concerns.

During the year an LGBT group in Mombasa relocated its

offices to a more secure location and advised its members to

maintain a low profile when coming to the group’s office to

avoid attack.

According to the 2011 Annual Report of the Observatory, in

February 2010 religious leaders in Mtwapa issued antigay

statements and demanded the closure of the Kenya Medical

Research Institute, which conducts research and provides

treatment to persons with HIV/AIDS. Crowds subsequently

attacked the center and beat one of its volunteers. Other volun-

teers were taken into police protective custody. All were re-

leased without charge, but none of the attackers was arrested.

On two occasions in 2010, Denis Karimi Nzioka, GALCK’s

public relations officer and a writer on LGBT issues, was

forced to move from his home by neighbors who said they

knew he was gay. Nzioka was also targeted by unknown per-

sons on the streets who threatened him with violence or death.

Unlike in previous years, no anti-LGBT publicity campaigns

were conducted; however, sensational reporting often inflamed

societal prejudices.

Societal discrimination against persons with HIV/AIDS was a

problem. Stigmatization of HIV/AIDS made it difficult for

many families to acknowledge that a member was HIV-

positive, and no socially or politically prominent individual

admitted being HIV-positive. Violence against persons with

HIV/AIDS occurred.

The government worked in cooperation with international

donors on programs for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment.

This cooperation enabled a continued expansion of counseling

and testing as well as care and treatment. These developments

were seen as key to reducing stigma and discrimination.

Mob violence and vigilante action were common and resulted

in numerous deaths. Most victims were persons suspected of

criminal activities, including theft, robbery, killings, cattle

rustling, and membership in criminal or terrorist gangs. Human

rights observers attributed vigilante violence to a lack of public

confidence in police and the criminal justice system, in which

assailants evaded arrest or bribed their way out of jail. The

social acceptability of mob violence also provided cover for

acts of personal vengeance, including settling land disputes.

On September 27, a mob killed three men who had failed in a

robbery attempt.

Mobs also attacked persons suspected of witchcraft or partici-

pation in ritual killings, particularly in Kisii district and Nyan-

za and Western provinces. Although local officials spoke out

against witch burning and increased police patrols to discour-

age the practice, human rights NGOs noted public reluctance

to report such cases due to fear of retribution.

In May a mob killed a man and his wife and burned their home

in Nyahera Village after the mutilated body of a boy was

found, and the mob attributed the death to the couple’s sus-

pected involvement in witchcraft. Police at the scene did not

intervene to prevent the attack. No action was taken by year’s

end.

[ ] HIV/AIDS-related

[ ] lynchings-related

http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/186418.pdf


37

Appendix 4

The lynching problem [in America today, in the early 1930s] is of high national

importance (Milton 2003 [1933]:v).

Chart 1: Total lynchings Kenya 1993 & 2011 vs. the U.S. 1892 & 1930

Chart 2: Per capita lynchings Kenya 1993 & 2011 vs. the U.S. 1892 & 1930

For the 1993 Kenya lynching figure, see the U.S. Department of State’s 1993 country report on human rights practices (at

http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/democracy/1993_hrp_report/93hrp_report_africa/Kenya.html, accessed 17 Jun 2013); for the 2011

figure, my source is the Kenya Police’s 2011 annual crime report (at

http://www.kenyapolice.go.ke/resources/CRIME%20REPORT%202011.pdf, accessed 2 Feb 2013). For the two U.S. lynching

figures, see statistics provided by the Archives at Tuskegee Institute (at

http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/shipp/lynchingyear.html, accessed 3 Feb 2013).

http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/democracy/1993_hrp_report/93hrp_report_africa/Kenya.html

http://www.kenyapolice.go.ke/resources/CRIME%20REPORT%202011.pdf

http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/shipp/lynchingyear.html


38

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40

Endnotes

1 For two Kenyan media stories in which, by my judgment, ‘lynch’ is used incorrectly in Kenyan English, see ‘Boy

kills brother over politics,’ Star, 11 Mar 2013, by Shaban Makokha, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-

111444/boy-kills-brother-over-politics, accessed 12 Apr 2013; ‘2 held over Mumias murders,’ Star, 2 Jul 2013, by

Shaban Makokha, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-126556/2-held-over-mumias-murders, accessed 24 Jul

2013. In each case, one person (not a mob) kills another. 2 Concerning a sample of Indonesia’s very numerous keroyokan mobbings from 1995-2004, see, e.g., Welsh (2010)

and a related paper available online at http://www.yale.edu/macmillan/ocvprogram/OCV_Welsh.pdf, accessed 22

Aug 2013. 3 ‘A routine crime,’ The Economist, print edition, 18 Jun 2009, Nairobi, http://www.economist.com/node/13876716,

accessed 26 Jan 2013. 4 ‘Country reports on human rights practices for 1992,’ Feb 1993, 119, U.S. Department of State,

http://archive.org/stream/countryreportson1992unit#page/n1/mode/2up, accessed 23 Aug 2013; ‘Kenya human

rights practices, 1993,’ 31 Jan 1994, U.S. Department of State,

http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/democracy/1993_hrp_report/93hrp_report_africa/Kenya.html, accessed 23 Aug 2013;

‘[2000 country reports on human rights practices: ]Kenya,’ 23 Feb 2001, U.S. Department of State,

http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2000/af/841.htm, accessed 23 Aug 2013. No source is cited for the figures for

1992 or 1993; Kenya’s Government is given as the source of the 2000 figure of 240, as it is for report figures for

January-September 1999 and 2001-2003. What is not clear here is how consistently Kenya’s Government has kept

annual mob justice figures that it has not published or made otherwise available to the public. 5 See, e.g., ‘Man, 76, beaten to death during beer party brawl,’ Nation, Briefly (3

rd of 5), 18 Apr 2007, 28, in which a

lynching is reported in a second, non-headline item of a brief by the single sentence, “In Vihiga District, a suspected

criminal was lynched by villagers at Wamulalu, Central Maragoli Location.” 6 ‘Police and mobs kill 6 suspects in Nairobi,’ Star, 24 Jul 2012, by Dominic Wabala, http://www.the-

star.co.ke/news/article-9088/police-and-mobs-kill-6-suspects-nairobi, accessed 1 May 2013, with copy-editing of

the direct quote. The same day’s lynchings are mentioned as an example of mob violence killings in the U.S. De-

partment of State’s 2012 Kenya country report on human rights practices, though the date that the country report

gives for these lynchings is that of the Star article I cite as reporting them (‘Kenya 2012 human rights report,’ U.S.

Department of State, 50, http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/index.htm?year=2012&dlid=204131,

accessed 27 Apr 2013). 7 Standard, Palaver, 15, 23 Jan 2009 (1

st of 5 items); italics added, and with only Onyango’s attributed direct speech

quoted here. 8 ‘Kenyans their own worst enemies in the war against fake or stolen goods,’ Nation, Opinion, 6 Oct 2012, by Peter

Mwaura, http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/-/440808/1526180/-/l7ujfdz/-/index.html, accessed 7 Mar 2013;

italics added, with one paragraph break deleted. 9 ‘Cast the first stone if you haven’t sinned,’ Nation, 1 May 2013, by Elizabeth Njora,

http://www.nation.co.ke/Features/Living/Cast-the-first-stone-if-you-havent-sinned/-/1218/1762394/-/30mt2gz/-

/index.html, accessed 25 Jun 2013. 10

See, e.g., ‘Ojaamong urges locals to stop lynching,’ Star, 27 Feb 2012, by Reuben Olita, http://www.the-

star.co.ke/news/article-28628/ojaamong-urges-locals-stop-lynching, accessed 5 Mar 2013. Then see also, as opposed

examples, ‘Lynch thieves, MP Kizito tells villagers,’ Star, 30 May 2011, by Hilton Otenyo, http://www.the-

star.co.ke/news/article-62024/lynch-thieves-mp-kizito-tells-villagers, accessed 5 Mar 2013; ‘Kiambu Kuppet [Ken-

ya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers] warns traitor,’ Star, 6 Sep 2012, by Stanley Njenga, http://www.the-

star.co.ke/news/article-3335/kiambu-kuppet-warns-traitors, accessed 5 Mar 2013; and ‘Hunt down the killers, Musi-

la tells irate locals,’ 8 Jul 2013, by Musembi Nzengu, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-127233/hunt-down-

killers-musila-tells-irate-locals, accessed 9 Jul 2013. 11

See, e.g., ‘We must stem this violence,’ Nation, Editorial, 4 Jun 2003, 8; ‘A frightening culture of violence and

chaos,’ Nation, Opinion & Analysis, 18 May 2003, 18, by Sunny Bindra. Although it does not use the exact phrase

‘culture of violence’, see also the very similar ‘Kenya sitting on a ticking time bomb,’ Nation, 20 Aug 2013, by Clay

Muganda, http://www.nation.co.ke/life+style/DN2/Kenya+sitting+on+a+ticking+time+bomb/-/957860/1959588/-

/ulkb3a/-/index.html, accessed 23 Aug 2013.

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-111444/boy-kills-brother-over-politics

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-111444/boy-kills-brother-over-politics

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-126556/2-held-over-mumias-murders

http://www.yale.edu/macmillan/ocvprogram/OCV_Welsh.pdf

http://www.economist.com/node/13876716

http://archive.org/stream/countryreportson1992unit#page/n1/mode/2up


http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2000/af/841.htm

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-9088/police-and-mobs-kill-6-suspects-nairobi

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-9088/police-and-mobs-kill-6-suspects-nairobi

http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/index.htm?year=2012&dlid=204131

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/-/440808/1526180/-/l7ujfdz/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/Features/Living/Cast-the-first-stone-if-you-havent-sinned/-/1218/1762394/-/30mt2gz/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/Features/Living/Cast-the-first-stone-if-you-havent-sinned/-/1218/1762394/-/30mt2gz/-/index.html

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-28628/ojaamong-urges-locals-stop-lynching

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-28628/ojaamong-urges-locals-stop-lynching

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-62024/lynch-thieves-mp-kizito-tells-villagers

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-62024/lynch-thieves-mp-kizito-tells-villagers

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-3335/kiambu-kuppet-warns-traitors

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-3335/kiambu-kuppet-warns-traitors



http://www.nation.co.ke/life+style/DN2/Kenya+sitting+on+a+ticking+time+bomb/-/957860/1959588/-/ulkb3a/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/life+style/DN2/Kenya+sitting+on+a+ticking+time+bomb/-/957860/1959588/-/ulkb3a/-/index.html


41

12

‘10 killed as mobs mete out justice,’ Nation, 7 May 2013, by Zadock Angira, http://www.nation.co.ke/News/10-

killed-as-mobs-mete-out-justice/-/1056/1845634/-/wxyjdk/-/index.html, accessed 20 May 2013. 13

‘Four killed in renewed Mandera fighting,’ Nation, 29 Jun 2013, by Sunday Nation Team,

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/1899418/-/w2o499z/-/index.html, accessed 29 Jun 2013. 14

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cruel, accessed 3 Feb 2013; http://www.merriam-

webster.com/dictionary/cruel%20and%20unusual%20punishment, accessed 3 Feb 2013. 15

See, e.g., ‘Stop these savage killings of animals,’ Star, 8 Feb 2013, by Salisha Chandra and John Mbaria,

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-106515/stop-these-savage-killings-animals, accessed 10 Feb 2013. 16

See articles mentioned in other notes for examples of at least many of these methods. For a possible lynching by

slitting the victim’s throat (though with this case not the only one in my data where this method was used), see ‘Sus-

pected witchdoctor found dead outside Ganze bar,’ Star, 30 May 2013, by Elias Yaa,

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-122414/suspected-witchdoctor-found-dead-outside-ganze-bar, accessed 24

Jun 2013; while for my data’s unique case involving burial alive (together with at least beating and burning), see

‘‘Witchdoctor’ buried alive over son’s death,’ Standard, 24 Jun 2013, by Kenan Miruka,

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/entertainment/pulse/77/crazy-world/719/witchdoctor-buried-alive-over-sons-death,

accessed 24 Jun 2013. 17

See, for just two ambiguous cases from my data that may both in fact hint at an avoidance of hanging as a lynch-

ing method for Kenyans, ‘Vigilantes kill with equal force,’ Standard, 18 May 2009, by Standard Team,

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=1144014452&story_title=Vigilantes-who-kill-with-equal-force, accessed 6

Mar 2013; ‘Mathioya notorious thugs lynched,’ Star, 19 Oct 2012, by Jesse Mwangi, http://www.the-

star.co.ke/news/article-91836/mathioya-notorious-thugs-lynched, accessed 6 Mar 2013. And see also, in one or an-

other hanging-related regard (e.g., hanging as perhaps not cruel enough to fit whatever the alleged crime; hanging as

Kenya’s legal death penalty; hanging as a common method of suicide in at least parts of Kenya; hanging as perhaps

too deliberate a method for either the anger or relative spontaneity that appears to be a part of so many Kenyan

lynchings), Bohannan (1967:174-78) concerning the Luhya, Wilson (1967:193-213) concerning the Luo, and the

appendix tables of unnumbered pages 290-94 of Bohannan, ed. (1967) concerning the prevalence of hanging as the

means of suicide for that volume’s non-Kenyan peoples. 18

See, e.g., ‘Runaway insecurity a symptom of descent into a failed State,’ Nation, Opinion, 26 Jan 2011, by Paul

Muite, http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/Runaway+insecurity+a+symptom+of+Kenyas+descent/-

/440808/1096416/-/7eumgvz/-/index.html, accessed 23 Aug 2013; ‘Lynch suspects at your own peril, say police,’

Nation, 23 May 2012, by Galgalo Bocha, http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Police-warn-public-over-mob-justice-/-

/1056/1412254/-/1xpv8az/-/index.html, accessed 19 Feb 2013—the reader comment by PamMK, copy-edited: “But

the police do the lynching themselves ... why are they confusing us???” Concerning the Kenya Police’s notoriety,

deserved or not, for extra-judicial killings, see, e.g., ‘Police on the spot over killing of 13 suspects,’ Standard, 29 Jun

2013, by Standard on Saturday Reporter and Agencies,

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000087086&story_title=Kenya-police-on-the-spot-over-killing-of-13-

suspects, accessed 29 Jun 2013. 19

See, e.g., the references to stoning in both Mutahi (1996:51) and ‘Where animal lovers are lynched,’ Standard, 28

Nov 2010, by Ted Malanda, http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000023513&story_title=Where-animal-lovers-

are-lynched-, accessed 11 Feb 2013. 20

See ‘Kitui jailbird lynched after midnight attack,’ Star, 13 Jul 2011, by Phillip Muasya, http://www.the-

star.co.ke/news/article-57280/kitui-jailbird-lynched-after-midnight-attack, accessed 5 Mar 2013; which article, when

it first appeared online, was accompanied by a photo that may have shown—uncharacteristically, I believe, for Ken-

ya’s media—the victim’s brain spilled out of his skull. 21

Notwithstanding the contextual truth of ‘Our mobs do not torture suspects’ (Nation, The Week That Was, with

Gakiha Weru, 27 Apr 2008, 2), see, for some references to torture as part of Kenyan lynchings or to some Kenyan

lynchings qualifying as torture in UN eyes, ‘Motorcycle thief lynched at Kogelo,’ Star, 28 Apr 2011, by Justus

Ochieng, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-65251/motor-cycle-thief-lynched-kogelo, 5 Mar 2013; ‘Time to

tame mob injustice is now,’ Standard, 7 Apr 2010, by Judith Akinyi,

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000007119&story_title=Time-to-tame-mob-injustice-is-now-, accessed 5

Mar 2013; ‘To end torture, let’s stop lynch mobs too,’ Nation, Opinion, 24 Jun 2011, by Gabriel Dolan,

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/To-end-torture--let-s-stop-lynch-mobs-too-/-/440808/1188542/-/mvthda/-

/index.html, accessed 5 Mar 2013; ‘Kenyan officials quizzed over torture report,’ Nation, 15 May 2013, by Caroline

Wafula, http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Kenyan-officials-quizzed-over-torture-report/-/1056/1853612/-/21k31m/-

/index.html, accessed 15 May 2013.



http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/1899418/-/w2o499z/-/index.html

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cruel

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cruel%20and%20unusual%20punishment

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cruel%20and%20unusual%20punishment

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-106515/stop-these-savage-killings-animals



http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=1144014452&story_title=Vigilantes-who-kill-with-equal-force

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-91836/mathioya-notorious-thugs-lynched

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-91836/mathioya-notorious-thugs-lynched

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/Runaway+insecurity+a+symptom+of+Kenyas+descent/-/440808/1096416/-/7eumgvz/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/Runaway+insecurity+a+symptom+of+Kenyas+descent/-/440808/1096416/-/7eumgvz/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Police-warn-public-over-mob-justice-/-/1056/1412254/-/1xpv8az/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Police-warn-public-over-mob-justice-/-/1056/1412254/-/1xpv8az/-/index.html

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000087086&story_title=Kenya-police-on-the-spot-over-killing-of-13-suspects

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000087086&story_title=Kenya-police-on-the-spot-over-killing-of-13-suspects

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000023513&story_title=Where-animal-lovers-are-lynched-

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000023513&story_title=Where-animal-lovers-are-lynched-

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-57280/kitui-jailbird-lynched-after-midnight-attack

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-57280/kitui-jailbird-lynched-after-midnight-attack

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-65251/motor-cycle-thief-lynched-kogelo

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000007119&story_title=Time-to-tame-mob-injustice-is-now-

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/To-end-torture--let-s-stop-lynch-mobs-too-/-/440808/1188542/-/mvthda/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/To-end-torture--let-s-stop-lynch-mobs-too-/-/440808/1188542/-/mvthda/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Kenyan-officials-quizzed-over-torture-report/-/1056/1853612/-/21k31m/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Kenyan-officials-quizzed-over-torture-report/-/1056/1853612/-/21k31m/-/index.html


42

22

See, for two articles I remember as reporting the taking of body parts, ‘Unkind end for suspected witch,’ Stand-

ard, 7 Jan 2013, by Linah Benyawa, http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000074426&story_title=Unkind-end-

for-suspected-witch, accessed 17 Apr 2013, in which the victim’s severed penis was reported found at the local mar-

ket where he was known to play draughts (checkers); ‘Suspect stoned and beheaded by angry mob,’ 31 Dec 2010, by

Moraa Obiria, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-77027/suspect-stoned-and-beheaded-angry-mob, accessed 1

May 2013, in which the victim was reported to have been stoned unconscious, then decapitated—which I believe to

be the only such case in my data. In contrast, concerning trophy taking from the bodies of lynched black Americans,

see Chacon & Dye (2008:19-20). 23

‘Evictions bring out the worst in Kenyans,’ Nation, Editorial, 22 Dec 1996, 6; ‘Woman arrested over guard’s

lynching,’ Nation, 23 Dec 1996, 1 (cont. on 2), by Nation Correspondent. 24

‘Mob kills six card-players and sets their bodies on fire,’ Nation, Crime, 18 Jul 2006, 1 (cont. on 3), by Simon

Siele. 25

‘The cutting edge,’ Nation, News Analysis (6th

brief of 8), 23 Jul 2006, 11, by Watchman. 26

‘More than 100 lynched in two months,’ Nation, 31 Aug 2011, by Fred Mukinda,

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/More-than-100-lynched-in-two-months/-/1056/1228606/-/lmugyxz/-/index.html,

accessed 11 Feb 2013. 27

‘Stop these mob killings,’ Nation, Editorial, 1 Sep 2011, http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Editorial/Stop-these-mob-

killings/-/440804/1228922/-/14gsmeo/-/index.html, accessed 11 Feb 2013. The two sentences quoted are in separate

paragraphs in the original. 28

See, for just a few examples of punishments set by Kenyan law and/or handed down by Kenya’s courts for the

same kinds of crimes that can provoke Kenyan mobs to cruel lynchings, ‘A slap on the wrist for rapist,’ Nation, Edi-

torial, 4 May 2002, 8; ‘Cow thief jailed for three years,’ Nation, Briefs (4th

of 4), 24 Dec 2003, 17; ‘Man to serve 3

years in jail for stealing calf,’ Nation, Briefly (1st of 5), 29 Aug 2008, 32; ‘Kenyans their own worst enemies in the

war against fake or stolen goods,’ Nation (see note 8), in which journalist Mwaura mentions three years in prison as

the “general penalty for theft.” 29

See, e.g., ‘Lynched trio ‘innocent’,’ Nation, 11 Jan 1999, 15, by Nation Correspondent; ‘Fatal mistake cost a mag-

istrate life,’ Standard, 18 Apr 2009, by Cyrus Ombati,

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=1144011869&story_title=Fatal-mistake-cost-a-magistrate-life, accessed

1 May 2013; ‘Man lynched by mob was seen as hero who changed village life,’ Nation, 20 Aug 2013,

http://www.nation.co.ke/counties/Man+lynched+by+mob+was+seen+as+hero+who+changed+village+life/-

/1107872/1961920/-/uc9134/-/index.html, accessed 23 Aug 2013. For an expression of a Kenyan view (minority,

probably, I believe) that witch-allegation lynchings necessarily involve innocent victims, see, e.g., ‘Stop killings by

witch-hunt mobs,’ Nation, Editorial, 8 Sep 1998, 6, in which, “The lives of innocent people must not be destroyed

over mere superstition. The bloodthirsty mobs must be stopped now.” Another Kenyan reacted as follows to the

lynching of three persons evidently innocent (see ‘Lynch mobs,’ Nation Digital, Short takes, 26 Aug 2013, 14, by

Kiarie Peter): “So, what do you do after realising that you’ve killed me “by mistake”? Apologise? To who? Death is

worlds apart from sleep. It’s about time this lunacy died.” 30

For three very graphic examples that involve burning as at least part of the lynching (not recommended for anyone

disturbed by graphic violence), see ‘Witches burned alive in Kenya, Africa,’

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1fe_1310865020, accessed 3 Feb 2013; ‘Thieves burned alive in Kenya for steal-

ing potatoes,’ http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c5f_1309711220&comments=1, accessed 3 Feb 2013; ‘Mob lynches

man in Kenya before the police execute him,’ http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e68_1348031935, accessed 3 Feb

2013. 31

For a written reaction to what I believe must be the video of the alleged witches being burned alive (see note 30),

see ‘Shame of witch-hunts,’ Nation, 27 Feb 2012, by Waga Odongo, http://www.nation.co.ke/Features/DN2/Shame-

of-witch-hunts-/-/957860/1335432/-/59dutoz/-/index.html, accessed 26 Feb 2013. For just one of a number of You-

Tube reactions to the video of the two potato thieves being burned alive (see note 30), see ‘Sickening 2 thieves steal-

ing a sack of potatoes in Kenya get burned in fire,’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6sQNoF01JU, accessed 1

May 2013. 32

See, e.g., ‘Justice system in the dock after residents lynch ten,’ Nation, 18 Sep 2008, by Daniel Otieno,

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/472316/-/tktrg2/-/index.html, accessed 24 Feb 2013; ‘Runaway insecurity a

symptom of Kenya’s descent into a failed State,’ Nation (see note 18); ‘Those who have stolen from the public re-

main free,’ Nation, Opinion, 26 Dec 2009, by Ahmednasir Abdullahi, http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/-

/440808/831416/-/5pn0ua/-/index.html, accessed 24 Feb 2013—the reader comment by olegaita66 that includes,

“When citizens don’t trust their law enforcement officers, what do they do? They use mob justice, right?”

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000074426&story_title=Unkind-end-for-suspected-witch

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000074426&story_title=Unkind-end-for-suspected-witch

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-77027/suspect-stoned-and-beheaded-angry-mob

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/More-than-100-lynched-in-two-months/-/1056/1228606/-/lmugyxz/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Editorial/Stop-these-mob-killings/-/440804/1228922/-/14gsmeo/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Editorial/Stop-these-mob-killings/-/440804/1228922/-/14gsmeo/-/index.html

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=1144011869&story_title=Fatal-mistake-cost-a-magistrate-life

http://www.nation.co.ke/counties/Man+lynched+by+mob+was+seen+as+hero+who+changed+village+life/-/1107872/1961920/-/uc9134/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/counties/Man+lynched+by+mob+was+seen+as+hero+who+changed+village+life/-/1107872/1961920/-/uc9134/-/index.html

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1fe_1310865020

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c5f_1309711220&comments=1

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e68_1348031935

http://www.nation.co.ke/Features/DN2/Shame-of-witch-hunts-/-/957860/1335432/-/59dutoz/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/Features/DN2/Shame-of-witch-hunts-/-/957860/1335432/-/59dutoz/-/index.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6sQNoF01JU

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/472316/-/tktrg2/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/-/440808/831416/-/5pn0ua/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/-/440808/831416/-/5pn0ua/-/index.html


43

33

‘Kenya human rights practices, 1993,’ U.S. Department of State (see note 4). 34

‘More than 100 lynched in two months,’ Nation (see note 26). 35

What I speak of here as theft of a person, the media more commonly call either abduction or kidnapping (see, e.g.,

‘Kidnap suspects lynched,’ Nation, 1 Dec 1999, 4, by Nation Reporters; ‘Families in pain over chilling murders,’

Standard, 11 Aug 2012, by Oscar Obonyo,

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000063816&story_title=Families-in-pain-over-chilling-murders, accessed

13 Apr 2013). However, I know of at least two articles that call it theft, whether or not also abduction or kidnapping

(see ‘Nanyuki ‘child thief’ saved from angry mob,’ Star, 12 Apr 2013, by Kings Waweru, http://www.the-

star.co.ke/news/article-116377/nanyuki-child-thief-saved-angry-mob, accessed 1 May 2013; ‘Boy saved from man

accused of child theft,’ Nation Digital, 23 Jul 2013, by Nation Correspondent, 21); and interestingly, the latter of

these two articles says that the “suspected kidnapper,” after his arrest by police, was charged in court “with child

theft.” 36

See, e.g., ‘Five suspects lynched in foiled theft attempt,’ Standard, 23 Sep 2008, 12, by Standard Team; ‘Mob

beats carjacker to death,’ Nation, 27 Nov 1996, 20, by Nation Correspondent; ‘Gangsters shot dead,’ Nation, 9 Mar

1997, 4, by Sunday Nation Correspondents; ‘Villagers kill three suspects,’ Nation, 2 Feb 1999, 5, by Nation Corre-

spondent. 37

See, e.g., ‘Suspected thief beaten to death,’ Nation, Briefs (4th

of 5), 12 Nov 2005, 11; ‘Mob violence spiraling out

of control in Meru,’ Standard, 2 Feb 2008, 12, by Patrick Muriungi. 38

See, e.g., ‘Suspects lynched by mob ‘resurrect’ in mortuary,’ Standard, 9 May 2011, by Kenan Miruka,

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000034722&story_title=Suspects-lynched-by-mob-'resurrect'-in-mortuary,

accessed 8 Mar 2013; ‘Three lynched after raid on village shops,’ Nation, 1 Sep 2011, by Nation Correspondent,

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/regional/Three-lynched-after-raid-on-village-shops/-/1070/1229126/-/15aol5h/-

/index.html, accessed 8 Mar 2013. 39

See, e.g., ‘G4S driver arrested with Sh17 million,’ Standard, 26 Feb 2010, by Cyrus Ombati and Audrey Moraa,

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000004295&story_title=G4S-driver-arrested-with-Sh17-million, accessed 7

Feb 2013; ‘Suspected thief burnt to death,’ Star, 14 Jun 2011, by Kiplang’at Kirui, http://www.the-

star.co.ke/news/article-60464/suspected-thief-burnt-death, accessed 7 Feb 2013; ‘Burglary suspects face mob

wrath,’ Nation, 6 Jan 1999, 17, by Nation Correspondent; ‘Villagers lynch 3 gangsters in Kisii,’ Standard, 16 Jun

2003, by Willice Ochieng, http://allafrica.com/stories/200306160579.html, stub accessed 8 Mar 2013. 40

See, e.g., ‘Suspect lynched,’ Nation, 25 Jan 1998, 4 (my clipping has no additional information available); ‘Police

kill five gangsters in city,’ Star, 3 Jul 2012, by Dominic Wabala, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-

11961/police-kill-five-gangsters-city, accessed 7 Feb 2013. 41

See, e.g., ‘Telcom wires thief lynched by the public,’ Star, 14 Jul 2011, by Wanjohi Gakio, http://www.the-

star.co.ke/news/article-57143/telcom-wires-thief-lynched-public, accessed 8 Mar 2013. 42

See, e.g., ‘Schoolboy, 19, beaten to death,’ Nation, 21 May 2000, 28, by Sunday Nation Correspondent; ‘Villagers

lynch brothers over Mungiki claims,’ Nation, 21 May 2008, 34, by Nation Correspondents—viz., Waikwa Maina,

Mwangi Ndirangu and Steven Munyiri; ‘Meru village rabbit thief burnt to death,’ Star, 14 Nov 2011,

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-41697/meru-village-rabbit-thief-burnt-death, accessed 7 Feb 2013; ‘Villagers

lynch man over hen,’ Standard, 24 Jun 2008, 11, by Robert Nyasato; ‘Suspect is killed for milking cow,’ Nation, 5

Apr 2002, 19, by Nation Correspondent. 43

See, e.g., ‘Farmers stone suspect to death,’ Nation, 24 Jan 1998, 23, by Silas Nthiga and Muthui Mwai; ‘Thieves

burned alive in Kenya for stealing potatoes’ (very graphic; see note 30). 44

See, e.g., ‘Suspected tomato thief killed by mob,’ Nation, Briefly (4th

of 5), 7 Feb 2007, 32; ‘Villagers kill sus-

pected thief,’ Nation, Newsview in brief (1st of unknown number), 20 Jun 1998, 4; ‘Man aged 28 lynched for steal-

ing maize,’ Star, 1 Apr 2011, by Angwenyi Gichana, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-67862/man-aged-28-

lynched-stealing-maize, accessed 6 Feb 2013; ‘Suspected thief killed,’ Nation, 21 Feb 1999, 3, by Sunday Nation

Correspondent; ‘Nyeri mob kills arrowroot thief,’ Star, 29 Dec 2012, by Wambugu Kanyi, http://www.the-

star.co.ke/news/article-100807/nyeri-mob-kills-arrowroot-thief, accessed 6 Feb 2013. 45

See, e.g., ‘Wounds of post-election violence still raw in Kenya,’ National Public Radio, 10 Nov 2009, by Gwen

Thompkins, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120277520, accessed 13 Feb 2013, in which a

26-year-old Kalenjin interviewed at Eldoret is quoted as saying that he felt nothing when more than thirty Kikuyu

women and children were burned alive in an area church, and that, “Even up to now I’m still angry. It was not a fair

election. It was just a stolen election.” 46

See, e.g., ‘City Hall pledges to upgrade schools,’ Standard, 8 Mar 2011, by Boniface Ongeri,

https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000030689&story_title=City-Hall-pledges-to-upgrade-schools, ac-

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000063816&story_title=Families-in-pain-over-chilling-murders

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-116377/nanyuki-child-thief-saved-angry-mob

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-116377/nanyuki-child-thief-saved-angry-mob

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000034722&story_title=Suspects-lynched-by-mob-'resurrect'-in-mortuary

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/regional/Three-lynched-after-raid-on-village-shops/-/1070/1229126/-/15aol5h/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/regional/Three-lynched-after-raid-on-village-shops/-/1070/1229126/-/15aol5h/-/index.html

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000004295&story_title=G4S-driver-arrested-with-Sh17-million

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-60464/suspected-thief-burnt-death

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-60464/suspected-thief-burnt-death


http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-11961/police-kill-five-gangsters-city

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-11961/police-kill-five-gangsters-city

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-57143/telcom-wires-thief-lynched-public

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-57143/telcom-wires-thief-lynched-public

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-41697/meru-village-rabbit-thief-burnt-death

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-67862/man-aged-28-lynched-stealing-maize

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-67862/man-aged-28-lynched-stealing-maize

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-100807/nyeri-mob-kills-arrowroot-thief

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-100807/nyeri-mob-kills-arrowroot-thief

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120277520

https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000030689&story_title=City-Hall-pledges-to-upgrade-schools


44

cessed 23 Aug 2013; ‘Man beaten to death for ‘adultery’,’ Standard, 18 Jun 2008, by Robert Nyasato and Nick Olu-

och; ‘Two stoned to death over illicit love affair,’ Nation, 7 Sep 2011, by Charles Wanyoro, additional reporting by

Jackline Moraa and James Kariuki, http://www.nation.co.ke/News/regional/Two-stoned-to-death-over-illicit-love-

affair/-/1070/1232370/-/glkuxh/-/index.html, accessed 8 Mar 2013; ‘Six killed as crime wave hits Central,’ Nation,

18 Dec 2012, by Eric Mutai, http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Six-killed-as-crime-wave-hits-Central/-/1056/1646384/-

/ecwj05/-/index.html, accessed 6 Feb 2013; ‘Bomet sex pest lynched by mob,’ Star, 28 Jan 2012, by Gilbert Kimu-

tai, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-32396/bomet-sex-pest-lynched-mob, accessed 13 Feb 2013. For a recent

article that reports villagers beating a man, then turning him over to the police, after he was caught in the act with a

neighbor’s goat, see ‘Barongo man flees naked after he was caught in the act with a goat,’ Standard, 23 Jul 2013, by

Robert Kiplagat, http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000089146&story_title=man-flees-naked-after-he-

was-caught-in-the-act-with-a-goat, accessed 24 Jul 2013—with a number of articles following in the Star, Nation,

and Standard concerning bestiality in Kenya and reactions to it by various parts of Kenyan society. 47

See ‘Gay man stoned to death in Nairobi slum,’ Identity Kenya, n.d.,

http://www.identitykenya.com/index.php/daily-news/241-gay-man-stoned-to-death-in-nairobi-slum, accessed 13

Feb 2013. For a recent article that significantly, to me, does not mention lynching as one of the ways gays in Kenya

report they have been abused, see ‘Dark world of Kenyan homosexuals,’ Standard, 25 Feb 2013, by Njoki Chege,

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000078052&story_title=Kenya-Dark-world-of-Kenyan-homosexuals, ac-

cessed 25 Feb 2013. For an opinion piece that does not mention any lynchings of gays, see ‘You can’t wish away

African gays,’ Nation, Opinion, 10 Mar 2010, by David Kuria, http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/You-cant-

wish-away-African-gays-/-/440808/876684/-/csg2k6z/-/index.html, accessed 8 Mar 2013; while for an opinion piece

with a non-specific reference to some African communities having punished “culprits of [same-sex] behaviour” by

lynching (traditionally, I assume), see ‘Nothing’s African about gays,’ Nation, Opinion, 7 Mar 2010, by Fr Dominic

Waweru, http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/Nothing-is-African-about-gays-/-/440808/874988/-/a3tytd/-

/index.html, accessed 8 Mar 2013. For a recent article whose initial paragraphs appear to report a mob assault on a

gay but where a later sentence appears to have it rather the assault of one gay by another, see ‘Mbura defends gay

rights,’ Star, 24 Jun 2013, by Charles Mghenyi, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-125378/mbura-defends-gay-

rights, accessed 26 Jun 2013. For a recent article that mentions two casual laborers being beaten, not lynched, after

being caught in a homosexual act, see ‘Nairobi gay community use ‘dirty tricks’ to spread influence,’ Standard, 27

Jun 2013, by Nyambega Gisesa, http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000086928&story_title=nairobi-gay-

community-use-dirty-tricks-to-spread-influence&pageNo=1, accessed 28 Jun 2013. For a recent article that alleges a

gay man being stoned, literally, but not killed (or perhaps even injured seriously?), see ‘If you are gay and proud…,’

Star, 6 Jul 2013, by Diana Wangari, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-127108/if-you-are-gay-and-proud, ac-

cessed 6 Jul 2013. For a recent article that reports a crowd wanting to lynch a 30-year-old man for sodomizing a 50-

year-old whom he had offered to help home after the latter had been on a drinking spree (with the homosexual rape

concerned clearly not the same as consensual same-sex sex), see ‘Drunk man, 50[,] sodomised,’ Star, 23 Jul 2013,

by Jane Mugambi, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-129134/drunk-man-50-sodomised, accessed 24 Jul 2013. 48

See, e.g., ‘Man butchers wife, relatives,’ Nation, 14 Jun 1998, 1 (cont. on 2), by Maguta Kimemia and Kimani

Waiyai; ‘Neighbours kill man for slashing his father,’ Nation, Briefly (1st of 5), 25 Dec 2007, 33; ‘Man lynched for

allegedly killing his mother,’ Standard, 28 May 2011, by Roselyne Obala,

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000036031&story_title=Man-lynched-for-allegedly-killing-his-mother-,

accessed 13 Feb 2013; ‘‘Mentally unstable’ man strangles his wife,’ Nation, 23 Nov 2010, by Ouma Wanzala and

Philemon Suter, http://www.nation.co.ke/News/regional/Mentally-unstable-man-strangles-his-wife-/-

/1070/1059356/-/80q0jl/-/index.html, accessed 26 Feb 2013, in a non-lead item of which a man is reported lynched

for allegedly stabbing a provincial administrator; ‘Man beaten to death,’ Star, 19 Sep 2012, by Jane Mugambi,

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-1688/man-beaten-death, accessed 26 Feb 2013. 49

The following three media articles are examples of ones that mention Kenya’s Witchcraft Act: ‘When brothers

hacked sibling and father, 68, to death,’ Nation, 31 Jul 2006, 4, by Daniel Nyassy; ‘Malindi elders flay youth killing

witches,’ Star, 11 Jun 2011, by Alphonce Gari, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-60692/malindi-elders-flay-

youth-killing-witches, accessed 11 Feb 2013; ‘Police arrest 10 suspects over Borabu lynching,’ Star, 2 Mar 2012, by

Benson Nyagesiba, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-27957/police-arrest-10-suspects-over-borabu-lynching,

accessed 11 Feb 2013. The Witchcraft Act itself, the text of which is only two pages, is available online at

http://www.kenyalaw.org/klr/fileadmin/pdfdownloads/Acts/WitchcraftActCap67.pdf, accessed 11 Feb 2013. 50

See, e.g., ‘Woman lynched over family row,’ Nation, 1 Sep 1998, 5, by Nation Correspondent, as well as the fol-

low-up ‘Lynching suspects defended,’ Nation, 2 Sep 1998, 3, by Nation Correspondent; ‘Witches deserve punish-

ment,’ Nation, Mailbox, 21 Sep 1998, 7, by David Sanganyi; ‘Police watch as mob kills suspected witches,’ Stand-

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/regional/Two-stoned-to-death-over-illicit-love-affair/-/1070/1232370/-/glkuxh/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/regional/Two-stoned-to-death-over-illicit-love-affair/-/1070/1232370/-/glkuxh/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Six-killed-as-crime-wave-hits-Central/-/1056/1646384/-/ecwj05/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Six-killed-as-crime-wave-hits-Central/-/1056/1646384/-/ecwj05/-/index.html

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-32396/bomet-sex-pest-lynched-mob

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000089146&story_title=man-flees-naked-after-he-was-caught-in-the-act-with-a-goat

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000089146&story_title=man-flees-naked-after-he-was-caught-in-the-act-with-a-goat

http://www.identitykenya.com/index.php/daily-news/241-gay-man-stoned-to-death-in-nairobi-slum

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000078052&story_title=Kenya-Dark-world-of-Kenyan-homosexuals

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/You-cant-wish-away-African-gays-/-/440808/876684/-/csg2k6z/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/You-cant-wish-away-African-gays-/-/440808/876684/-/csg2k6z/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/Nothing-is-African-about-gays-/-/440808/874988/-/a3tytd/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/Nothing-is-African-about-gays-/-/440808/874988/-/a3tytd/-/index.html

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-125378/mbura-defends-gay-rights

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-125378/mbura-defends-gay-rights

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000086928&story_title=nairobi-gay-community-use-dirty-tricks-to-spread-influence&pageNo=1

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000086928&story_title=nairobi-gay-community-use-dirty-tricks-to-spread-influence&pageNo=1

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-127108/if-you-are-gay-and-proud

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-129134/drunk-man-50-sodomised

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000036031&story_title=Man-lynched-for-allegedly-killing-his-mother-

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/regional/Mentally-unstable-man-strangles-his-wife-/-/1070/1059356/-/80q0jl/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/regional/Mentally-unstable-man-strangles-his-wife-/-/1070/1059356/-/80q0jl/-/index.html

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-1688/man-beaten-death

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-60692/malindi-elders-flay-youth-killing-witches

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-60692/malindi-elders-flay-youth-killing-witches

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-27957/police-arrest-10-suspects-over-borabu-lynching

http://www.kenyalaw.org/klr/fileadmin/pdfdownloads/Acts/WitchcraftActCap67.pdf


45

ard, 17 May 2011, by Kepher Otieno, http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000035296&story_title=Police-watch-

as-mob-kills-suspected-witches-, accessed 25 Feb 2013; ‘Suspected thief, wizard lynched in Watamu,’ Star, 23 May

2011, by Alphonce Gari, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-62727/suspected-thief-wizard-lynched-watamu,

accessed 25 Feb 2013; ‘Ex-Kanu chief lynched on suspicion of bewitching son,’ Star, 10 Jul 2012, by Alphonce

Gari, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-11020/ex-kanu-chief-lynched-suspicion-bewitching-son, accessed 26

Feb 2013. 51

See, e.g., ‘Residents batter suspect to death,’ Nation, 15 Apr 1998, 22, by Nation Correspondent; ‘Suspected

Mungiki lynched,’ Star, 26 Apr 2011, by Jane Mugambi, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-65477/suspected-

mungiki-lynched, accessed 25 Feb 2013; ‘Suspected robber lynched in Sagana,’ Star, 2 Jun 2011, by Jane Mugambi,

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-61649/suspected-robber-lynched-sagana, accessed 13 Feb 2013. 52

For “terror gangs,” see Kenya country reports for 1998-2006 at their respective links: ‘Kenya country report on

human rights practices for 1998,’ 26 Feb 1999, U.S. Department of State,

http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/1998_hrp_report/kenya.html, accessed 23 Aug 2013; ‘1999 country

report on human rights practices for 1999: Kenya,’ 25 Feb 2000, U.S. Department of State,

http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/1999_hrp_report/kenya.html, accessed 23 Aug 2013; ‘‘[2000 coun-

try reports on human rights practices: ]Kenya,’ U.S. Department of State (see note 4); ‘[2001 country reports on

human rights practices: ]Kenya,’ 4 Mar 2002, U.S. Department of State,

http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2001/af/8386.htm, accessed 23 Aug 2013; ‘[2002 country reports on human

rights practices: ]Kenya,’ 31 Mar 2003, U.S. Department of State,

http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2002/18209.htm, accessed 23 Aug 2013; ‘[2003 country reports on human rights

practices: ]Kenya,’ 25 Feb 2004, U.S. Department of State, http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2003/27733.htm,

accessed 23 Aug 2013; ‘[2004 country reports on human rights practices: ]Kenya,’ 28 Feb 2005, U.S. Department of

State, http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/41609.htm, accessed 23 Aug 2013; ‘[2005 country reports on human

rights practices: ]Kenya,’ 8 Mar 2006, U.S. Department of State,

http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61575.htm, accessed 23 Aug 2013; ‘[2006 country reports on human rights

practices: ]Kenya,’ 6 Mar 2007, U.S. Department of State, http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78740.htm, ac-

cessed 23 Aug 2013. For “terrorist gangs,” see Kenya country reports for 2007, 2008 at their respective links: ‘[2007

country report on human rights practices: ]Kenya,’ 11 Mar 2008, U.S. Department of State,

http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2007/100487.htm, accessed 23 Aug 2013; ‘2008 human rights report: Kenya,’ 25

Feb 2009, U.S. Department of State, http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/af/119007.htm, accessed 23 Aug 2013

http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/. For “criminal or terrorist gangs,” see Kenya country reports for 2009-2012 at

their respective links: ‘2009 human rights report: Kenya,’ 11 Mar 2010, U.S. Department of State,

http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2009/af/135959.htm, accessed 23 Aug 2013; ‘2010 human rights report: Kenya,’

8 Apr 2011, U.S. Department of State, http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2010/af/154352.htm, accessed 23 Aug

2013; ‘2011 human rights reports: Kenya,’ 24 May 2011, U.S. Department of State,

http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2011/af/186208.htm, accessed 23 Aug 2013;

‘Country reports on human rights practices for 2012: Kenya,’ U.S. Department of State,

http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/index.htm?year=2012&dlid=204131, accessed 23 Aug 2013. 53

See, e.g., ‘Man ejected from bus and killed by mob,’ Nation, Election Aftermath, 28 Jan 2008, 6, by Nation Cor-

respondent. 54

‘We are sinking into the realms of warlords, fugitives and failed states,’ Standard, 22 Jan 2011,

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000027218&story_title=We-are-sinking-into-the-realms-of-warlords,-

fugitives-and-failed-states, accessed 10 Feb 2013. 55

‘Five reasons why we are a mediocre country,’ Nation, Opinion, 10 Aug 2013, by Makau Mutua,

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/Five-reasons-why-we-are-a-mediocre-country-/-/440808/1943560/-

/yuitewz/-/index.html, accessed 21 Aug 2013. From my own experience of twelve years’ residence in Kenya, I be-

lieve Mutua generalizes, but not without reason. 56

For an example of something of the range of what police are reported as telling people by way of warning and

instruction in the wake of lynchings, see ‘Man lynched in Embu for stealing arrowroots,’ Star, 15 Feb 2011, by

Reuben Githinji, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-72177/man-lynched-embu-stealing-arrowroots, accessed 11

Feb 2013. 57

‘Stop these mob killings,’ Nation (see note 27). 58

Kenya country reports for 1992, 1993, U.S. Department of State (see note 4). 59

‘Kenya human rights practices, 1993,’ U.S. Department of State (see note 4).

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000035296&story_title=Police-watch-as-mob-kills-suspected-witches-

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000035296&story_title=Police-watch-as-mob-kills-suspected-witches-

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-62727/suspected-thief-wizard-lynched-watamu

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-11020/ex-kanu-chief-lynched-suspicion-bewitching-son

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-65477/suspected-mungiki-lynched

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-65477/suspected-mungiki-lynched

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-61649/suspected-robber-lynched-sagana

http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/1998_hrp_report/kenya.html



http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2002/18209.htm







http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/




http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/index.htm?year=2012&dlid=204131

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000027218&story_title=We-are-sinking-into-the-realms-of-warlords,-fugitives-and-failed-states

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000027218&story_title=We-are-sinking-into-the-realms-of-warlords,-fugitives-and-failed-states

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/Five-reasons-why-we-are-a-mediocre-country-/-/440808/1943560/-/yuitewz/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/Five-reasons-why-we-are-a-mediocre-country-/-/440808/1943560/-/yuitewz/-/index.html

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-72177/man-lynched-embu-stealing-arrowroots


46

60

‘Kenya human rights practices, 1994,’ Feb 1995, U.S. Department of State,

http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/democracy/1994_hrp_report/94hrp_report_africa/Kenya.html, accessed 22 Aug 2013. 61

‘Kenya human rights practices, 1995,’ Mar 1996, U.S. Department of State,

http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/democracy/1995_hrp_report/95hrp_report_africa/Kenya.html, accessed 22 Aug 2013. 62

‘Kenya country report on human rights practices for 1996,’ 30 Jan 1997, U.S. Department of State,

http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/1996_hrp_report/kenya.html, accessed 22 Aug 2013. 63

Kenya country reports for 2002, 2003, U.S. Department of State (see note 52). 64

‘[2004 country report on human rights practices: ]Kenya, U.S. Department of State (see note 52). 65

Kenya country reports on human rights practices for 2005-2008, U.S. Department of State (see note 52). 66

Kenya country reports on human rights practices for 2006-2008, U.S. Department of State (see note 52). 67

‘2009 human rights report: Kenya,’ U.S. Department of State (see note 52). 68

‘2010 human rights report: Kenya,’ U.S. Department of State (see note 52). 69

‘2011 human rights report: Kenya,’ U.S. Department of State (see note 52), with the lynching concerned the sub-

ject of ‘Police watch as mob kills suspected witches,’ Standard (see note 50). 70

‘Country reports on human rights practices for 2012: Kenya,’ U.S. Department of State (see note 52). 71

‘Kenya report on human rights practices for 1997,’ 30 Jan 1998, U.S. Department of State,

http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/1997_hrp_report/kenya.html, accessed 23 Aug 2013; Kenya coun-

try reports on human rights practices for 1998, 2009 (see note 52). 72

‘Two lynched over murder of two Nyamira women,’ Star, 6 May 2011, by Amos Nyambane, http://www.the-

star.co.ke/news/article-64391/two-lynched-over-murder-two-nyamira-women, accessed 8 Mar 2013. 73

‘Lynch suspects at your own peril, say police,’ Nation (see note 18); the reader comment, copy-edited, is by

suluhisho. 74

‘Where lynching still lives,’ Boston Globe, Opinion, 22 Jun 2005, by Daniel M. Goldstein,

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/06/22/where_lynching_still_lives/, ac-

cessed 3 May 2013. 75

‘Public, just like the police, prefers to kill suspects,’ Nation, Letters, 14 Aug 2013, by Job Momanyi,

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Letters/Public+just+like+the+police+prefers+to+kill+suspects/-/440806/1948310/-

/x8tobq/-/index.html, accessed 23 Aug 2013. 76

For the only case I recall offhand where members of a mob were sentenced to prison for a lynching, see a refer-

ence in ‘Two gangsters lynched by mob in Runyenjes,’ Star, 2 Nov 2012, by Martin Fundi, http://www.the-

star.co.ke/news/article-93877/two-gangsters-lynched-mob-runyenjes, accessed 6 Mar 2013; but see also, concerning

the appeal of the sentences concerned, ‘4 Embu convicts appeal ‘unfair’ life sentences,’ Star, 3 Apr 2013, by Reu-

ben Githinji, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-115046/4-embu-convicts-appeal-unfair-life-sentences, accessed

3 May 2013. For three cases for which I believe the relatively high status of a lynching victim at least largely ex-

plains the fact and number of arrests made, see ‘40 held over chief’s lynching,’ Nation, 17 Sep 2008, 16, by Nation

Correspondent; ‘Fatal mistake cost a magistrate life,’ Standard, 18 Apr 2009, by Cyrus Ombati,

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=1144011869&story_title=Fatal-mistake-cost-a-magistrate-life, accessed 13

Mar 2013; ‘Police seize 15 linked to Elkana Syong’oh's death,’ Nation, 21 Aug 2013, by Nation Correspondent,

http://www.nation.co.ke/news/Police+seize+15+linked+to+DoD+officers+death/-/1056/1963096/-/jluq02z/-

/index.html, accessed 26 Aug 2013, and, concerning the number actually charged, ‘12 in the dock over DoD officer

killing,’ Nation, 22 Aug 2013, http://www.nation.co.ke/news/12+in+the+dock+over+DoD+officer+killing++/-

/1056/1964254/-/sqritkz/-/index.html, accessed 23 Aug 2013. 77

In support of my perception of such modeling of impunity for Kenyan lynch mobs, see, e.g., ‘Will no one act on

Mwenje’s ilk?,’ Nation, 9 Feb 2001, http://allafrica.com/stories/200102090248.html, stub accessed 8 Mar 2013. 78

‘Country reports on human rights practices for 2012: Kenya,’ U.S. Department of State (see note 52). The killings

concerned are the same extra-judicial killings by police, observed by many, of ‘Runaway insecurity a symptom of

descent into a failed State,’ Nation (see note 18). 79

‘Uhuru vows to crush gangs as he assures Kenyans of safety,’ Nation, 19 May 2013, by Nation Correspondent,

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Uhuru-vows-to-crush-gangs/-/1056/1857464/-/12b3751z/-/index.html, accessed 20

May 2013; ‘Leaders of killer gang flee to Uganda,’ Nation, 16 May 2013, by Samuel Siringi and Lucas Barasa,

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/politics/-/1064/1855112/-/bl139r/-/index.html, accessed 20 May 2013; ‘Bungoma

families fear killer gangs could strike back with vengeance,’ Standard, 21 Jun 2013, by Robert Wanyonyi,

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000086517&story_title=bungoma-families-fear-killer-gangs-could-

strike-back-with-vengeance&pageNo=2, accessed 28 Jun 2013—which article updates to eighteen the number

lynched in response to the Busia and Bungoma attacks while noting six of these had been found innocent.





http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-64391/two-lynched-over-murder-two-nyamira-women

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-64391/two-lynched-over-murder-two-nyamira-women

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/06/22/where_lynching_still_lives/

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Letters/Public+just+like+the+police+prefers+to+kill+suspects/-/440806/1948310/-/x8tobq/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Letters/Public+just+like+the+police+prefers+to+kill+suspects/-/440806/1948310/-/x8tobq/-/index.html

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-93877/two-gangsters-lynched-mob-runyenjes

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-93877/two-gangsters-lynched-mob-runyenjes

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-115046/4-embu-convicts-appeal-unfair-life-sentences

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=1144011869&story_title=Fatal-mistake-cost-a-magistrate-life

http://www.nation.co.ke/news/Police+seize+15+linked+to+DoD+officers+death/-/1056/1963096/-/jluq02z/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/news/Police+seize+15+linked+to+DoD+officers+death/-/1056/1963096/-/jluq02z/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/news/12+in+the+dock+over+DoD+officer+killing++/-/1056/1964254/-/sqritkz/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/news/12+in+the+dock+over+DoD+officer+killing++/-/1056/1964254/-/sqritkz/-/index.html


http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Uhuru-vows-to-crush-gangs/-/1056/1857464/-/12b3751z/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/politics/-/1064/1855112/-/bl139r/-/index.html




47

80

‘Police, public kill nine in crime war,’ Nation, 12 Aug 2013, by Angira Zadock,

http://www.nation.co.ke/Counties/Police+public+kill+nine+in+crime+war/-/1107872/1945908/-/1hj898z/-

/index.html, accessed 24 Aug 2013. 81

See, for a report of four recent one-year jail sentences for burning charcoal, ‘Four charcoal burners jailed,’ Star,

28 Aug 2013, by James Wainaina, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-133772/four-charcoal-burners-jailed, ac-

cessed 28 Aug 2013. Deforestation is a serious problem in Kenya, this with regard to the country’s water supply. 82

See, concerning the relative poverty of the vast majority of lynching victims, ‘The evil of killing others in the

name of the law,’ Nation, Lifestyle, Father Kizito’s Notebook, 16 Apr 2000, 4, in which, “Not to speak of the vile

and cowardly habit of the so-called ‘mob justice’. Justice that is only meted out to the poor. I have never heard of an

instance where any notorious thief of public land, for instance, has been attacked by a wild mob eager to do ‘jus-

tice’.” To appreciate the depth of the alleged problem, see, e.g., ‘Kenyatta led elite in land grabbing,’ 21 May 2013,

by Nation Reporter, http://www.nation.co.ke/News/politics/Kenyatta-led-elite-in-land-grabbing-/-/1064/1859262/-

/ki3iy1z/-/index.html, accessed 6 Jun 2013, and related media pieces since. 83

See, e.g., ‘Why mushrooming slums pose the biggest threat to national security,’ Nation, 10 Sep 2012, by Kip-

chumba Some, http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Why-mushrooming-slums-pose-biggest-threat/-/1056/1502130/-

/ls7b2fz/-/index.html, accessed 20 Feb 2013. 84

‘Water shortages driving growing thefts, conflicts,’ AlertNet, 6 Aug 2012, by Gitonga Njeru,

http://allafrica.com/stories/201208070333.html, accessed 8 Mar 2013. 85

‘Woman arrested over guard’s lynching,’ Nation (see note 23). 86

‘One dead as peace rally ends in chaos,’ Nation, 24 May 1998, 1 (cont. on 2), by Sunday Nation Team and Agen-

cies. As I finish revising this paper for publication in late August 2013, historic land issues remain effectively un-

addressed by Kenya’s Government, with widespread suspicion that Government has in fact been a major part of the

problem (see, e.g., ‘Jubilee promises to tackle land question,’ Nation, 23 Feb 2013, by George Sayagie and Musa

Kurian, with additonal reporting by Ponciano Odongo, http://elections.nation.co.ke/news/Jubilee-promises-to-tackle-

land-question-/-/1631868/1702332/-/mh7y4r/-/index.html, accessed 23 Feb 2013). 87

See, e.g., ‘Three lynched as they inspect land,’ Nation, 23 Oct 2007, 33, by Nation Correspondent; ‘Mob attacks

surveyor,’ Nation, 27 Feb 2009, 36; ‘Mob confronts six foreigners,’ Star, 7 Jun 2013, by Brian Otieno,

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-123469/mob-confronts-six-foreigners, accessed 7 Jun 2013. 88

See, for an article about just one such report, ‘31 people killed before being tried, says report,’ Nation, 27 Sep

2002, 7, by Nation Correspondent. 89

In what may refer, in part, to such land-related witch-allegation lynchings, each U.S. Department of State Kenya

country report on human rights practices for 2003-2012 says something to the effect that the social acceptability of

mob violence provided cover for settling land disputes under the guise of “mob justice” (see note 52 for links to

each of the country reports concerned). 90

‘Shock as mob kills 11 over witchcraft in Kisii,’ Standard, Anarchy, 22 May 2008, 1 (cont. on 3), by Standard

Team—viz., Robert Nyasato, Winsley Masese, Jane Akinyi and Cyrus Ombati; see also ‘‘Witches’ burnt to death in

Kenya,’ BBC News, 21 May 2008, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7413268.stm, accessed 16 Feb 2013; ‘Mobs kill 15

over witchcraft claims,’ Nation, 22 May 2008, 1 (cont. on 2), by Nation Team; ‘Elderly woman lynched in Kisii

over witchcraft claims,’ Star, 11 Feb 2011, by Angwenyi Gichana, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-

72476/elderly-woman-lynched-kisii-over-witchcraft-claims, accessed 25 Feb 2013. 91

‘Witch hunts claim 250 in four years,’ Star, 5 Feb 2013, by Kerubo Lornah, http://www.the-

star.co.ke/news/article-105863/witch-hunts-claim-250-four-years, accessed 19 Feb 2013, with copy-editing of the

direct quote. For three articles with the same general charge, whether or not arrived at independently, see ‘Stop kill-

ing elderly, Malindi residents told,’ Star, 25 Sep 2012, by Kerubo Lornah (same reporter), http://www.the-

star.co.ke/news/article-958/stop-killing-elderly-malindi-residents-told, accessed 20 Feb 2013; ‘Preacher condemns

Kilifi killings,’ Star, 12 Jan 2012, by Kerubo Lornah (same reporter), http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-

34418/preacher-condemns-kilifi-killings, accessed 20 Feb 2013; ‘Stop lynching witches, Shehe tells Mijikenda,’

Star, 13 Jul 2013, by Philip Mbaji, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-127997/stop-lynching-witches-shehe-

tells-mijikenda, accessed 15 Jul 2013. 92

For two book-length case studies, see Bernstein (2005) and Downey & Hyser (2011), while for briefer treatment

of a number of further cases, see Wells-Barnett (2002:202-06). 93

See, e.g., the absence of any mention of lynching or lynch mobs in ‘President Uhuru Kenyatta moves to address

country’s insecurity,’ Standard, 30 Jun 2013, by Cyrus Ombati,

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000087180&story_title=president-uhuru-kenyatta-moves-to-address-

country-s-insecurity&pageNo=1, accessed 30 Jun 2013—at the end of a three-month period (April-June 2013) that



http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-133772/four-charcoal-burners-jailed

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/politics/Kenyatta-led-elite-in-land-grabbing-/-/1064/1859262/-/ki3iy1z/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/politics/Kenyatta-led-elite-in-land-grabbing-/-/1064/1859262/-/ki3iy1z/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Why-mushrooming-slums-pose-biggest-threat/-/1056/1502130/-/ls7b2fz/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Why-mushrooming-slums-pose-biggest-threat/-/1056/1502130/-/ls7b2fz/-/index.html


http://elections.nation.co.ke/news/Jubilee-promises-to-tackle-land-question-/-/1631868/1702332/-/mh7y4r/-/index.html

http://elections.nation.co.ke/news/Jubilee-promises-to-tackle-land-question-/-/1631868/1702332/-/mh7y4r/-/index.html

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-123469/mob-confronts-six-foreigners

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7413268.stm

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-72476/elderly-woman-lynched-kisii-over-witchcraft-claims

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-72476/elderly-woman-lynched-kisii-over-witchcraft-claims

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-105863/witch-hunts-claim-250-four-years

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-105863/witch-hunts-claim-250-four-years

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-958/stop-killing-elderly-malindi-residents-told

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-958/stop-killing-elderly-malindi-residents-told

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-34418/preacher-condemns-kilifi-killings

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-34418/preacher-condemns-kilifi-killings

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-127997/stop-lynching-witches-shehe-tells-mijikenda

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-127997/stop-lynching-witches-shehe-tells-mijikenda

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000087180&story_title=president-uhuru-kenyatta-moves-to-address-country-s-insecurity&pageNo=1

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000087180&story_title=president-uhuru-kenyatta-moves-to-address-country-s-insecurity&pageNo=1


48

saw Kenya’s Nation, Standard, and Star report, on average, just over 1.4 lynched persons per day (see in Appendix

1, which extends through the end of August 2013 and so reports a different average). See also ‘Iringo cautions on

mob justice,’ Star, 11 Jul 2013, by Lydia Ngoolo, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-127700/iringo-cautions-

mob-justice, accessed 11 Jul 2013, in which a representative of President Uhuru Kenyatta is reported as calling for

the arrest of a murderer in the case concerned but not that of members of the lynch mobs. 94

‘Shun immorality and pray more, says Uhuru,’ Nation Digital, Briefly (1st of 4), 1 Jul 2013, 10; ‘Respect our cul-

ture, Ruto tells US leader,’ Nation, 30 Jun 2013, by Nation Correspondent,

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/politics/Ruto-to-Obama-Respect-our-culture/-/1064/1900204/-/13m39bpz/-

/index.html, accessed 1 Jul 2013. And see Raper (2003) passim for references to Christian-church reactions to

America’s lynchings of 1930 that happened in the South. 95

I do not want to hold Kenya to a standard impossible for any country. I do not doubt that the U.S., assuming it

does not resume lynchings in great numbers, will yet continue to commit lynchings occasionally, whether or not

they choose to call them so—e.g., that which occurred in June 2007 at Austin, Texas (see ‘Austin crowd kills pas-

senger of car that hit child,’ Houston Chronicle, 21 June 2007, by Polly Ross Hughes,

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Austin-crowd-kills-passenger-of-car-that-hit-child-1672411.php,

accessed 24 Aug 2013; ‘Texas mob kills passenger after car strikes child,’ Seattle Times, 21 Jun 2007, by Liz Austin

Peterson, http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2003756479_austin21.html, accessed 24 Aug 2013; ‘Mexican

press calls killing a “lynching”,’ Uncovering Mexico, Archives, 21 Jun 2007, by Jeremy Schwartz, found 4 Aug

2012 at http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-

gen/blogs/austin/mexico/entries/2007/06/21/_tuesdays_killing_of_an.html/ but no longer available 24 Aug 2013). I

believe this Austin mob killing would be called a lynching by Kenya’s media. I would imagine that Walter White,

on the basis of the following quote from his Rope and faggot (1969), would also have called it a lynching: “When a

truck-driver runs over a child playing in the streets of even so cosmopolitan a city as New York, the tendency of the

American is to explode instantly into cries of “Lynch him!” and “String him up!”” (1969:197). 96

‘UN urges Papua New Guinea to fight sorcery,’ Nation, 12 Apr 2013, by AFP,

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/world/UN-urges-Papua-New-Guinea-to-fight-sorcery/-/1068/1746222/-/12rl7xaz/-

/index.html, accessed 4 May 2013. 97

‘UN report puts Kenya among notorious poaching countries,’ Star, 7 May 2013, by Diana Madegwa,

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-119363/un-report-puts-kenya-among-notorius-poaching-countries, accessed 7

May 2013. 98

‘UN condemns Bungoma and Busia killings, urge Govt to act,’ Nation, 10 May 2013, by Anthony Kariuki,

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/UN-condemns-Bungoma-and-Busia-killings/-/1056/1848336/-/oe1l7hz/-/index.html,

accessed 14 May 2013. In subsequent May 2013 articles on the same killings, I have seen the number killed reported

as high as fifteen. 99

‘Kenyan officials quizzed over torture report,’ Nation (see note 21). 100

‘Thugs attack three villages, injure 125,’ Standard, 29 Apr 2013, by Robert Wanyonyi,

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000082598&story_title=Kenya-Thugs-attack-three-villages,-injure-

125, accessed 14 May 2013; ‘Suspect lynched after attack on residents,’ Nation, 13 May 2013, by Erick Ngobilo,

http://www.nation.co.ke/Counties/Suspect-lynched-after-attack-on-residents/-/1107872/1851078/-/1fl7p0/-

/index.html, accessed 14 May 2013; ‘Vigilantes lynch eight suspects over Bungoma killings,’ Standard, 17 May

2013, by Daniel Psirmoi, http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000083778&story_title=eight-lynched-over-

bungoma-killings, accessed 17 May 2013; ‘Bungoma families fear killer gangs could strike back with vengeance,’

Standard (see note 79); ‘Shoot-to-kill order issued against gangs,’ Nation, 10 May 2013, by Eric[k] Ngobilo,

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Shoot-to-kill-order--issued-against-gangs/-/1056/1848806/-/v2s41fz/-/index.html,

accessed 14 May 2013. 101

See, in this regard, the kind of narrower, not-regarding-lynching-as-torture legislation referred to in ‘UN wants

state to enact law to punish acts of torture,’ Nation, 5 Jun 2013, by Nation Reporter,

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/UN-wants-State-to-punish-acts-of-torture/-/1056/1873492/-/yeflmkz/-/index.html,

accessed 6 Jun 2013. 102

‘Where lynching still lives,’ Boston Globe (see note 74); see also ‘A Senate apology for history on lynching,’

Washington Post, 14 Jun 2005, by Avis Thomas-Lester, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-

dyn/content/article/2005/06/13/AR2005061301720.html, accessed 6 May 2013, as well as ‘S.Res. 39 (109th):

Lynching Victims Senate Apology resolution,’ http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/109/sres39/text, accessed 6

May 2013.

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-127700/iringo-cautions-mob-justice

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-127700/iringo-cautions-mob-justice

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/politics/Ruto-to-Obama-Respect-our-culture/-/1064/1900204/-/13m39bpz/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/politics/Ruto-to-Obama-Respect-our-culture/-/1064/1900204/-/13m39bpz/-/index.html

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Austin-crowd-kills-passenger-of-car-that-hit-child-1672411.php

http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2003756479_austin21.html

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/mexico/entries/2007/06/21/_tuesdays_killing_of_an.html/

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/mexico/entries/2007/06/21/_tuesdays_killing_of_an.html/

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/world/UN-urges-Papua-New-Guinea-to-fight-sorcery/-/1068/1746222/-/12rl7xaz/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/world/UN-urges-Papua-New-Guinea-to-fight-sorcery/-/1068/1746222/-/12rl7xaz/-/index.html

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-119363/un-report-puts-kenya-among-notorius-poaching-countries

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/UN-condemns-Bungoma-and-Busia-killings/-/1056/1848336/-/oe1l7hz/-/index.html

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000082598&story_title=Kenya-Thugs-attack-three-villages,-injure-125

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000082598&story_title=Kenya-Thugs-attack-three-villages,-injure-125





http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Shoot-to-kill-order--issued-against-gangs/-/1056/1848806/-/v2s41fz/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/UN-wants-State-to-punish-acts-of-torture/-/1056/1873492/-/yeflmkz/-/index.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/13/AR2005061301720.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/13/AR2005061301720.html

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/109/sres39/text


49

103

See, e.g., ‘Obama fights Nigerian anti-gay bill, threatens to cut off aid,’ Forbes, 9 Dec 2011,

http://www.forbes.com/sites/mfonobongnsehe/2011/12/09/obama-fights-nigerian-anti-gay-bill-threatens-to-cut-off-

aid/, accessed 21 Feb 2013; ‘Uganda to pass anti-gay law as ‘Christmas gift’,’ BBC News, Africa, 13 Nov 2012,

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-20318436, accessed 21 Feb 2013; ‘U.S. presses Uganda on gay bill,’ The

Independent (Kampala), 27 Nov 1012, by Sarah Namulondo, http://allafrica.com/stories/201211271404.html, ac-

cessed 21 Feb 2013; ‘Nigerian lawmakers vote to outlaw gay marriage,’ Nation, 31 May 2013, by AFP,

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/africa/Nigerian-lawmakers-vote-to-outlaw-gay-marriage/-/1066/1867872/-

/12uv2dtz/-/index.html, accessed 31 May 2013. 104

Tanzania is one of at least several other African countries with a scandalous modern lynching record, but with

President Jikaya Kikwete perhaps singly to be commended for talking about that record publicly (see ‘Graft in line

of fire as Tanzania marks Law Day,’ Tanzania Daily News, 7 Feb 2013, by Faustine Kapama,

http://allafrica.com/stories/201302070133.html, accessed 8 Mar 2013). 105

See, in this regard, ‘US diplomat reiterates Obama gay rights call to Africa,’ Nation, 12 Jul 2013, by Nation Re-

porter, http://www.nation.co.ke/News/US-diplomat-reiterates-Obama-gay-rights-call-to-Africa/-/1056/1912906/-

/10apfkbz/-/index.html, accessed 12 Jul 2013, in which Obama, in a press conference quote from his 2013 Africa

tour, does not defend his view on gay rights by appeal to the Universal Declaration or anything like it, but rather

simply states it as his view—as what he thinks: “My basic view is that regardless of race, religion, gender, sexual

orientation, when it comes to how the law or state treats you, people should be treated equally. And that’s a principle

that I think applies universally.” See also numerous sub-Saharan African opinion pieces like ‘Let Obama take his

gay agenda elsewhere,’ Nation, 4 Jul 2013, by Dorothy Kweyu, http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/Let-Obama-

take-his-gay-agenda-elsewhere/-/440808/1905052/-/gcfi14/-/index.html, accessed 7 Jul 2013, which begins, “Some-

one tell US President Barack Obama that the continent has more pressing issues to tackle than his fixation with gay

and lesbian rights.” 106

See, e.g., ‘Purge death penalty from the statutes,’ Nation, Opinion, 25 Oct 2006, 9, by Matti Kääriäinen, in which

Finland’s ambassador to Kenya expressed EU concern primarily about Kenya’s failure to abolish her death penalty,

with mere asides concerning the country’s lynchings and extra-judicial killings by police. 107

See, e.g., among the chapters in Berg & Wendt, eds. (2011). 108

See, for an example of reported abetting in which some persuaded a mob to lynch suspects rather than take them

to the police, ‘Five boys lynched in village blunder,’ Nation, 16 Jul 2000, 1 (cont. on 2), by Oliver Musembi. 109

For photo evidence of spectators watching instances of mob violence, see, e.g., ‘Cornered,’ Nation, 27 Oct 1998,

4, photo by Michael N. Zanguna; ‘A suspect pleads for mercy from a mob …,’ Nation, 28 Oct 1998, 36 (with no

main caption or name of the photographer); ‘Mob justice,’ Nation, 9 Jan 2004, 1, photo by Cyrus Macharia. See also

‘They claim vigilante groups are being used to settle old scores,’ Nation, 31 Jul 2006, 4, by Allan Odhiambo and

Angwenyi Gichana. For reports of people celebrating lynchings in their aftermath, see, e.g., ‘Villagers lynch 11 rob-

bery suspects,’ Nation, 9 Nov 2008, http://www.nation.co.ke/news/-/1056/489064/-/5fkc1oz/-/index.html, accessed

23 Aug 2013; ‘Police watch as mob kills suspected witches,’ Standard (see note 50); ‘When death knocks on the

door and takes all,’ Nation, 30 May 2011, http://www.nation.co.ke/life+style/DN2/Village+terror+/-

/957860/1171906/-/86r7j/-/index.html, accessed 23 Aug 2013. In what I am saying here about spectators, I am not

judging those who make no attempt to interfere with lynchings for fear of their own lives; I am saying only that such

lack of action does nothing toward ending lynchings. 110

See, e.g., in ‘Now, this is my kind of Kenyan,’ Nation, 8 May 2013,

http://www.nation.co.ke/Features/Living/Now-this-is-my-kind-of-Kenyan/-/1218/1845402/-/jpmxi1z/-/index.html,

accessed 14 May 2013—the reply by shiino to ‘Cast the first stone if you haven’t sinned,’ Nation (see note 9). 111

See, e.g., in relation to a number of other articles for which I provide links in the present paper, ‘Those who have

stolen from the public remain free,’ Nation (see note 32), plus the part of the reader comment by Jangerboy that

says, “The lack of political will to deal with the endemic corruption in Kenya is just impossible to understand. A

petty thief on the street faces justice while the high and mighty … walk scot-free. Whak!”; ‘By worshipping dirty

wealth, we are fuelling more graft,’ Standard, 23 Feb 2013, by Henry Munene,

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000077914&story_title=Kenya--By-worshipping-dirty-wealth,-we-are-

fuelling-more-graft, accessed 23 Feb 2013; ‘Stop these savage killings of animals,’ Star (see note 15); ‘First Lady

Margaret Kenyatta launches campaign to save elephants,’ Standard, 27 Jul 2013, by PSCU,

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000089467&story_title=first-lady-margaret-kenyatta-launches-

campaign-to-save-elephants, accessed 21 Aug 2013. Consider also what strikes me as the odd lack of categorical

concern for lynchings, from ca. 2002, of the Kenya Human Rights Commission, as evidenced by no mention of mob

violence killings by any name in media articles announcing the publication of KHRC annual reports. In this regard,

http://www.forbes.com/sites/mfonobongnsehe/2011/12/09/obama-fights-nigerian-anti-gay-bill-threatens-to-cut-off-aid/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/mfonobongnsehe/2011/12/09/obama-fights-nigerian-anti-gay-bill-threatens-to-cut-off-aid/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-20318436


http://www.nation.co.ke/News/africa/Nigerian-lawmakers-vote-to-outlaw-gay-marriage/-/1066/1867872/-/12uv2dtz/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/africa/Nigerian-lawmakers-vote-to-outlaw-gay-marriage/-/1066/1867872/-/12uv2dtz/-/index.html


http://www.nation.co.ke/News/US-diplomat-reiterates-Obama-gay-rights-call-to-Africa/-/1056/1912906/-/10apfkbz/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/US-diplomat-reiterates-Obama-gay-rights-call-to-Africa/-/1056/1912906/-/10apfkbz/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/Let-Obama-take-his-gay-agenda-elsewhere/-/440808/1905052/-/gcfi14/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/Let-Obama-take-his-gay-agenda-elsewhere/-/440808/1905052/-/gcfi14/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/news/-/1056/489064/-/5fkc1oz/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/life+style/DN2/Village+terror+/-/957860/1171906/-/86r7j/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/life+style/DN2/Village+terror+/-/957860/1171906/-/86r7j/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/Features/Living/Now-this-is-my-kind-of-Kenyan/-/1218/1845402/-/jpmxi1z/-/index.html

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000077914&story_title=Kenya--By-worshipping-dirty-wealth,-we-are-fuelling-more-graft

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000077914&story_title=Kenya--By-worshipping-dirty-wealth,-we-are-fuelling-more-graft

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000089467&story_title=first-lady-margaret-kenyatta-launches-campaign-to-save-elephants

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000089467&story_title=first-lady-margaret-kenyatta-launches-campaign-to-save-elephants


50

and consistent with no further note of KHRC-supplied lynching figures in U.S. State Department country reports

after 2001, see ‘Justice or mob violence?,’ Nation, 30 Oct 2000, http://allafrica.com/stories/200010300375.html,

stub accessed 8 Mar 2013, which indicates that KHRC quarterly reports contained lynching figures as late as 1999;

‘Rights: Very few gains made in Kenya,’ Nation, Opinion, 10 Dec 2000, by Mugambi Kiai and Willy Mutunga,

http://allafrica.com/stories/200012110142.html, stub accessed 8 Mar 2013; ‘31 people killed before being tried, says

report,’ Nation (see note 88), which includes no mention of lynchings as a category of human rights violation. 112

See, for examples of people attempting to stop lynchings, whether or not successfully or at the cost of their own

lives, ‘They claim vigilante groups are being used to settle old scores,’ Nation (see note 109); ‘Brothers, father

lynched in botched robbery,’ Star, 30 Jul 2012, by Jane Mugambi, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-

8335/brothers-father-lynched-botched-robbery, accessed 26 Feb 2013; ‘Police reservist escapes Malindi mob,’ Star,

13 Sep 2012, by Kerubo Lornah, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-2404/police-reservist-escapes-malindi-mob,

accessed 26 Feb 2013. See also, for a Kenyan’s assessment of the risk involved in intervening in a lynching, ‘Pas-

sengers taunt man for insisting on safe driving,’ Standard, 1 Sep 2013,

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000092475&story_title=passengers-taunt-man-for-insisting-on-safe-

driving&pageNo=1, accessed 2 Sep 2013. 113

See, e.g., ‘Stop killings by witch-hunt mobs,’ Nation, Editorial, 8 Sep 1998, 6; ‘Mob killings of suspects must

end,’ Nation, Editorial, allAfrica.com archives, 12 Oct 1998, by Nation Correspondent,

http://allafrica.com/stories/199810120029.html, stub accessed 8 Mar 2013; ‘Stop these murders at once,’ Nation,

Editorial, 31 Jul 2006, 8; ‘Stop these mob killings,’ Nation (see note 27); ‘We can’t preserve culture by lynching

people,’ Nation, Opinion, 6 Nov 2010, by Dr. Lukoye Atwoli, http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/We-cannot-

preserve-culture-by-lynching-people-/-/440808/1048030/-/oakag1z/-/index.html, accessed 26 Feb 2013; ‘To end

torture, let’s stop lynch mobs too,’ Nation (see note 21); ‘Lynching of ‘witches’ is murder most foul,’ Standard,

Letters, 10 Mar 2009, by Marion Ouma, http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=1144008478&story_title=Lynching-

of-‘witches’-is-murder-most-foul, accessed 26 Feb 2013; ‘Kenya can be safer without us littering it with bodies,’

Standard, 25 May 2013, by James Gitau, http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000084447&story_title=kenya-

can-be-safer-without-us-littering-it-with-bodies, accessed 27 May 2013; ‘Hurrah cheats, extortionists, adulterers,

lynch mobs,’ Standard, 3 Jun 2013, by Jenny Luesby,

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000085166&story_title=Kenya-hurrah-cheats-extortionists-adulterers-

lynch-mobs, accessed 7 Jun 2013; ‘Justice is universal or it isn’t justice at all,’ Standard, 2 Sep 2013, by J. Luesby,

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/mobile/?articleID=2000092645&story_title=justice-is-universal-or-it-isn-t-

justice&pageNo=1, accessed 3 Sep 2013. For three recent examples of more-or-less prominent members of Nigerian

civil society decrying lynching in Nigeria, see ‘Nigerian filmmaker starts campaign against mob justice,’ Premium

Times, 3 Jul 2013, http://allafrica.com/stories/201307040224.html, accessed 7 Jul 2013; ‘Tinubu’s wife calls for

renewed fight against extra-judicial killings,’ Leadership (Abuja), 3 Jul 2013, http://allafrica.com/stories/201307040203.html, accessed 7 Jul 2013; ‘Who will stop the mob?,’ Premium Times,

Analysis, 10 Jul 2013, by Betty Abah, http://allafrica.com/stories/201307110252.html?viewall=1, accessed 11 Jul

2013. 114

‘Robbery bid man seized by pupils, court told,’ Nation, Briefly (2nd

of 5), 25 Apr 2008, 32; ‘How I saved a man

from being lynched,’ Nation, Young Nation, 14 Jun 2009, 5, by N. Waweru. 115

Wells-Barnett (2002:148-49); the ellipsis replaces the first two of Wells-Barnett’s answers to her own question

plus the paragraph break before the start of the third, quoted answer. 116

See, for one British perspective on the likely detrimental effect on foreign investment in Africa of Nairobi’s 1999

change of reputation to that of one of Africa’s most dangerous cities, the bulleted item at the end of ‘Gangsters ter-

rorise residents,’ Nation, 23 Jun 1999, 21, by Nation Correspondents. 117

‘Uhuru woos investors to boost growth,’ Nation, 12 May 2013, by PPS,

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/politics/Uhuru-woos-investors-to-boost-growth/-/1064/1850552/-/lhlhemz/-

/index.html, accessed 17 May 2013; ‘President Uhuru Kenyatta tells criminals causing insecurity,’ Standard, 20

May 2013, by Wainaina Ndung’u, http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000083996&story_title=surrender-

or-face-full-force-of-law-president-uhuru-kenyatta-tells-criminals-causing-insecurity&pageNo=1, accessed 20 May

2013. 118

See, e.g., ‘Awiti worried over insecurity,’ Star, 9 Aug 2013, by Habil Onyango, http://www.the-

star.co.ke/news/article-131386/awiti-worried-over-insecurity, accessed 21 Aug 2013. 119

See what was for four months the single comment, by wkithi, on ‘Thug was lynched in Ongata Rongai,’ Star, 3

Apr 2013, by Cynthia Kimola, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-115160/thug-was-lynched-ongata-rongai, ac-

cessed 1 Aug 2013an April 2013. The initial two sentences of the three-sentence comment, copy-edited, are as fol-



http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-8335/brothers-father-lynched-botched-robbery

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-8335/brothers-father-lynched-botched-robbery

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-2404/police-reservist-escapes-malindi-mob

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000092475&story_title=passengers-taunt-man-for-insisting-on-safe-driving&pageNo=1

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000092475&story_title=passengers-taunt-man-for-insisting-on-safe-driving&pageNo=1


http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/We-cannot-preserve-culture-by-lynching-people-/-/440808/1048030/-/oakag1z/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/We-cannot-preserve-culture-by-lynching-people-/-/440808/1048030/-/oakag1z/-/index.html

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=1144008478&story_title=Lynching-of-'witches'-is-murder-most-foul

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=1144008478&story_title=Lynching-of-'witches'-is-murder-most-foul

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000084447&story_title=kenya-can-be-safer-without-us-littering-it-with-bodies

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000084447&story_title=kenya-can-be-safer-without-us-littering-it-with-bodies

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000085166&story_title=Kenya-hurrah-cheats-extortionists-adulterers-lynch-mobs

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000085166&story_title=Kenya-hurrah-cheats-extortionists-adulterers-lynch-mobs

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/mobile/?articleID=2000092645&story_title=justice-is-universal-or-it-isn-t-justice&pageNo=1

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/mobile/?articleID=2000092645&story_title=justice-is-universal-or-it-isn-t-justice&pageNo=1



http://allafrica.com/stories/201307110252.html?viewall=1

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/politics/Uhuru-woos-investors-to-boost-growth/-/1064/1850552/-/lhlhemz/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/politics/Uhuru-woos-investors-to-boost-growth/-/1064/1850552/-/lhlhemz/-/index.html

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000083996&story_title=surrender-or-face-full-force-of-law-president-uhuru-kenyatta-tells-criminals-causing-insecurity&pageNo=1

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000083996&story_title=surrender-or-face-full-force-of-law-president-uhuru-kenyatta-tells-criminals-causing-insecurity&pageNo=1

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-131386/awiti-worried-over-insecurity

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-131386/awiti-worried-over-insecurity



51

lows: “The word ‘lynched’ is so 1950’s Jim Crow USA and it described a situation where one race [the white] tried

to exterminate the other [the black]. In this case [of the thug lynched in Ongata Rongai, Kenya], it’s one race [the

black] trying to exterminate the vermin among them so it cannot be lynching.” The 1950s, ironically, by Tuskegee

Institute figures, saw the first years of recorded U.S. lynching history with no lynchings—1952-1954, 1956, and

1958—and the decade’s total number, at eight, was less than one per year. 120

‘Vision 2030 relies heavily on science but forgets the power of witchcraft,’ Nation, 13 May 2011, by Peter

Mwaura, http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/Vision-2030-relies-heavily-on-science-/-/440808/1161922/-

/ji0in1z/-/index.html, accessed 18 Mar 2013, without the paragraph breaks of the original. And see, in the same re-

gard and concerning the closely-related political sphere, ‘Our elections are incomplete without witchcraft,’ Stand-

ard, 26 May 2013, by Peter Wanyonyi, http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000084546&story_title=our-

elections-are-incomplete-without-witchcraft, accessed 29 Jun 2013. 121

Wells-Barnett (2002:55), without the paragraph break of the original and with the whole of Frederick Douglass’s

letter used as the preface to ‘A red record’ (1895). 122

‘Suspect set ablaze,’ Nation Digital, 21 Aug 2013, 6, photo by Jimson Ndung’u. 123

‘Robber lynched in Embu,’ Star, 3 Jun 2013, by Reuben Githinji, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-

122797/robber-lynched-embu, accessed 5 Jun 2013; ‘Man lynched for stealing spoons,’ Standard, Crazy World, 4

Jun 2013, by Sammy Jakaa, http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/entertainment/pulse/77/crazy-world/509/man-lynched-

for-stealing-spoons, accessed 5 Jun 2013, in which, “The incident shocked passersby as they helplessly watched

livid residents descend on the suspected thief [with] stones and rungus”; ‘Migori police probe lynching of DoD

worker,’ Star, 16 Aug 2013, by Manuel Odeny, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-132298/migori-police-probe-

lynching-dod-worker, accessed 21 Aug 2013. Each of these articles is referenced in Appendix 1, which contains

abundant evidence that lynchings continue unabated in Kenya’s present. 124

‘Mob justice killings on the rise,’ Star, 19 Aug 2013, by Maureen Waruinge, http://www.the-

star.co.ke/news/article-132457/mob-justice-killings-rise, accessed 26 Aug 2013, copy-edited. I may simply have

missed it, but I did not find a report of this same news by August 26 searches of the online versions of the Nation or

Standard. When I checked on the Star story again the morning of September 1 (UTC-8:45, Central Time, U.S.),

there had been no comments on the 335 mob justice killings over seven months. Several days earlier, on August 27,

there was no mention of mob justice killings in a Standard article about a crisis meeting of top Nairobi cops con-

cerning city crime levels, with an increase in vehicle hijackings at the top of the meeting’s agenda (see ‘Top cops

hold crisis meeting after crime rise,’ Standard, 27 Aug 2013, by Cyrus Ombati,

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000092119&story_title=top-cops-hold-crisis-meeting-after-crime-

rise&pageNo=1, accessed 27 Aug 2013. On a different yet related subject, I do not believe that the Kenya Police

have yet, by the end of August 2013, issued their annual crime report for 2012 with that year’s number of mob jus-

tice killings. 125

‘We must organize a national day of shame,’ Nation, Opinion, 22 Jun 2012, by Gabriel Dolan,

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/We-must-organise-a-national-day-of-shame--/-/440808/1433612/-/7aenlqz/-

/index.html, accessed 23 Feb 2013. Dolan is an Irish priest of St. Patrick’s Missionary Society, also known as the

Kiltegan Fathers. 126

‘Security team alarmed by mob lynchings,’ Nation, 13 Feb 2008, 3, by Charles Wanyoro. 127

I commend others as well, whether or not they are print media and whatever their nationalities, for speaking out

against lynchings in Kenya—e.g., KenyaForum, outstandingly (see ‘Justice and the price paid,’ KenyaForum, 20 Jan

2011, http://www.kenyaforum.net/?p=212, accessed 26 Aug 2013; ‘Kenya’s “strange fruit” and the impunity of the

mob…,’ KenyaForum, 18 Aug 2011, http://www.kenyaforum.net/?p=466, accessed 26 Aug 2013; ‘Tis the season to

be jolly, la, la, la, lah, la, la, la, lah, plus a few lynchings while slinging taxpayers[’] money at advertising, la, la, la,

lah, la, la, la, lah…,’ KenyaForum, 29 Dec 2011, http://www.kenyaforum.net/?p=2869, accessed 26 Aug 2013;

‘Lynchings in Kenya: Are we all guilty of the mob mentality?,’ KenyaForum, 15 May 2012,

http://www.kenyaforum.net/?p=4210, accessed 26 Aug 2013). 128

‘Vigilantes lynch eight suspects over Bungoma killings,’ Standard (see note 100). 129

For an example of a lynching reported only by a photo-with-caption, see ‘Suspect set ablaze,’ Nation Digital (see

note 122). The mere photo-with-caption concerned is still to me a priceless datum on lynchings in modern Kenya.

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/Vision-2030-relies-heavily-on-science-/-/440808/1161922/-/ji0in1z/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/Vision-2030-relies-heavily-on-science-/-/440808/1161922/-/ji0in1z/-/index.html

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000084546&story_title=our-elections-are-incomplete-without-witchcraft

http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000084546&story_title=our-elections-are-incomplete-without-witchcraft







http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-132457/mob-justice-killings-rise

http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-132457/mob-justice-killings-rise

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000092119&story_title=top-cops-hold-crisis-meeting-after-crime-rise&pageNo=1

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000092119&story_title=top-cops-hold-crisis-meeting-after-crime-rise&pageNo=1

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/We-must-organise-a-national-day-of-shame--/-/440808/1433612/-/7aenlqz/-/index.html

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/We-must-organise-a-national-day-of-shame--/-/440808/1433612/-/7aenlqz/-/index.html

http://www.kenyaforum.net/?p=212




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