The Judiciary and the police are blaming each other for the rise of political goonism, The Star reported. The two sides clashed at the launch of the 2025-26 annual report of the National Council on the Administration of Justice (NCAJ). The report shows reported crime has risen by 157 per cent. The number of criminal gangs has grown from 89 to 109.
Director of Criminal Investigations Mohammed Amin represented Inspector General Douglas Kanja at the launch. He urged the Judiciary to speed up gang-related trials. Amin said releasing suspects on minimal bail and bonds "undermines deterrence" and lets repeat offenders return to the streets. He said police arrested 1,827 suspected goons between January and August. Those arrests produced 729 convictions, and 716 cases are still in court.
Amin named Western Kenya and the Rift Valley as major centres of gang activity. Trans Nzoia alone accounted for 491 arrests. He acknowledged criticism of the police response to political violence. He said officers who fail to act against gangs will now be held individually accountable. The service is also digitising its operations.
Chief Justice Martha Koome replied that individual goons may get bond because of the nature of their offences. She said the people who finance them should face more serious charges. Koome described goonism as organised crime that ranks among serious offences. She said the Judiciary has gazetted a serious crimes division of the High Court to support magistrates.
Koome told investigators to map which counties, constituencies and wards the goons come from, and who pays them. "Those are the people you should arrest and charge with serious crimes of organised crime," she said. She added that Kenyans worry about violence because "it can stand between us and our right to vote."
Council of Governors chairperson Muthomi Njuki, the Tharaka Nithi governor, warned against treating goonism as purely a political problem. He said businessmen and others also use criminal gangs. Njuki said governors had agreed to call out colleagues linked to funding or deploying goons. He also called for the return of prosecutorial powers withdrawn from county governments in 2024. The Chief Justice chairs the NCAJ, which brings together key justice institutions.