Naomi Mutua, a resident of Kilimani, in Nairobi, drew my attention to a questionable article published in Nation.Africa on May 25, 2022. It says Kilimani “has earned itself an unenviable title of being Nairobi’s gangland capital” and the upmarket estate has a “booming underground sex trade”. It is appropriately headlined “How Kilimani lost its allure to become Nairobi’s gang and illicit sex capital”.
Ms Mutua, a digital communications and PR professional, questions the veracity and accuracy of the article. “Is this a Kilimani phenomenon or is crime in Nairobi generally spiking?” she asks. “What are the comparisons with other areas? Is it only because Kilimani is deemed upmarket that it’s singled out?”
She also questions the timelines regarding the killing of Kevin Omwenga, one of the episodes narrated in the article to prove Kilimani is a gangland capital. “Last weekend’s murder of Kevin Omwenga over a suspected fake gold deal gone sour is just the latest example of a growing list of criminal activities in Kilimani,” the article says. “Mr Omwenga, 28, was a car dealer whose fortunes suddenly changed after he quit his job and joined a syndicate of gold swindlers.”
To state that Mr Omwenga was murdered “last weekend” is incorrect. As Ms Mutua points out, the writer reported the same death in another article published in 2020. “How is it that he died again last weekend?”
Not supported by facts
The claim by the writer that Kilimani is a gangland and illicit sex capital is not supported by facts. To demonstrate that, the writer needs to give comparative statistics, or the crime rates, in other estates. The crime rate is calculated by dividing the number of reported crimes by the population and multiplying the result by 100,000. For example, in 2020, some 69, 645 crimes were reported in Kenya and the population was 47,564,296. The calculation gives a crime rate of 146 per 100,000.
In the absence of such demonstrative statistics, the term “gangland”—leave alone “gangland capital”—becomes meaningless. Gangland is a term used to describe territory controlled by gangs, or the violent world of organised crime, or the criminal underworld. If you read popular gangland books, like Martina Cole’s No Mercy, Anna Smith’s Trapped or Roberta Kray’s Betrayed, or watch the Gangland television series, you’ll know describing Kilimani as “gangland capital” is a bad joke.
Not listed in police reports
As evidence, the article simply says that “criminals have trooped in and turned (Kilimani) into Nairobi’s gang capital”. That hardly proves the estate has become a gangland capital. Kilimani isn’t even listed in police reports of the top 20 “crime hot spots”. According to the police, you’re more likely to be murdered in, for example, Cotton City (the area between Wilson Airport and South C), Mathare, Mlolongo or Ruai than in Kilimani.
And if you’re looking for illicit sex, it’s more plentiful in, for example, Kayole, Umoja, Eastleigh, Majengo or Dandora than in Kilimani. Ditto if you’re looking for criminal gangs. They even have names—such as Supepower Gang in Eastleigh, Siafu in Kasarani, Mauki Family in Mathare, Msako Empire in Huruma and Usiku Sacco in Umoja.
More importantly, the article is self-plagiarised. There’s a similar article published on August 27, 2020. Self-plagiarism is cheating the reader that the material is original, new and fresh, as I’ve in the past explained in this column (“Why readers feel cheated when newspapers republish old stories”—Daily Nation, August 30, 2018). Self-plagiarism, I explained, is presenting your own previously published work as though it were new.
In another earlier article, I discussed a case of self-plagiarism in the Sunday Nation, in which columnist Yusuf Dawood repeated some of the old episodes of his long-running Surgeon’s Diary (“In journalism, self-plagiarism is considered a form of misconduct”—Daily Nation, March 17, 2016). I pointed out that self-plagiarism can be avoided by telling the reader upfront that the material has been published before. Notice how I’ve avoided self-plagiarism here by telling you that what I’m telling you had been published!
The article christening Kilimani as Nairobi’s gangland capital lacks veracity and accuracy. It doesn’t meet NMG’s editorial standards. BY DAILY NATION