1 dies, 5 injured as Likoni mob attacks teen gang

An eighteen-year-old man has died following an attack by a mob in Likoni, Mombasa as residents take the law into their own hands in bid to reclaim their streets from teen criminal gangs.

Five other suspected gang members are nursing deep cut wounds at the Coast Provincial General Hospital following the Thursday mob attack.

“We received six young boy…Most of them had deep cuts, especially on the head and neck. Upon arrival, one of them succumbed,” said Dr Mary Okello, who is the hospital’s deputy chief administrator.

A mother of one of the injured victims fainted after seeing hers son’s head injuries while his sister could be heard warning him that “crime does not pay.”

The woman, after regaining consciousness, said her son has been involved in suspicious activities.

“I have told you [not to] don’t indulge in these criminal activities…do you want to kill your mother now?” asked an angry relative at the injured victim.

The teenager who died after the attack was a high school student and was set to join Form Three next year while the victim whose mother fainted is a Class Seven pupil at Burhan Primary School in Mombasa.

Muslim Human Rights (Muhuri) and Haki Africa, which are Mombasa-based human rights groups, condemned both the criminal gang over their alleged attack plan and the residents for taking the law into their own hands.

The two groups said the increasing cases of insecurity in Mombasa are shocking with Muhuri’s rapid response officer Francis Auma linking the attack on the Kongowea-linked gang on boda boda operators.

“It is our view that the killings have now gotten out of hand and are a major security scare. As an organisation, we are calling on the police to act swiftly and bring to an end this spate of killings. Kenyans have a right to security and police are paid to guarantee this constitutional right. We call on government to transfer all OCSs who fail to curb killings in their areas of jurisdiction,” Mr Auma said.