By Moses Michira
GARISSA, KENYA: Detectives in troubled Garissa town say a booming black market could be the main cause of the incessant violence. The illegal trade is on household products such as sugar, which is imported tax-free.
Barons involved in the underground economy may have irregularly acquired Kenyan citizenship and are suspected to be financiers of the Al Shabaab. A senior detective said the killers of two employees of the Kenya Revenue Authority ( KRA) in broad daylight late last month, were hit men hired by a sugar baron, but are thought to have fled after the ongoing crackdown was launched.
“The killers are an execution squad hired by the dealers in contraband products in this town,” said the detective unearthing the killings.
However, police have said the probe is not conclusive. Our source said police officers killed in different attacks had been directly involved either at the numerous road blocks erected on the entry points to the town, or were assigned to investigate cases of illegal imports.
“All this violence revolves around the illegal imports where people opposed to it become targets for elimination,” said the detective in anonymity.
Some suspected sponsors of the criminal gangs are thought to have moved into the town when the Somalia government collapsed in the 1990s, bringing with them immense wealth that has since multiplied from their business interests.
Small arms and explosives are also smuggled into the country by the same barons in the same consignments with the household commodities.
The information is part of findings that the intelligence officers are expected to hand over to President Uhuru Kenyatta, who demanded a thorough probe into the cause of violence in Garissa.
President Uhuru is expected to make a decision on whether an audit to establish how the barons obtained their Kenyan citizenship, since an initial probe on the suspected crime lords had cast doubts on how they acquired identification cards.
Source: Standardmedia.com
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