Why Kisumu city is under siege

Kisumu city is on the edge as insecurity soars, daring goon attacks blossom amid fear and a lethargic response by law enforcement agencies, who are playing a spectator role as criminals unleash terror on residents.

So bad is the situation that barely a day passes without a violent criminal attack being reported. For some families, the search for missing relatives has become a waking nightmare, with some ending in tears in the city’s mortuaries at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital (JOOTRH) and Kisumu County Referral Hospital.

Residents believe some of the groupings that act as goons for politicians during the day morph into thugs at night, targeting innocent victims.

This, coupled with the failure by the county government to maintain functioning street lights has worsened insecurity in the lakeside city and exposed residents to frequent attacks.

The daring thugs have even targeted the official residence of Deputy Governor Mathews Owili and made away with several electronics, including a gadget used for monitoring county revenue.

In recent weeks, politicians have been attacked, students have been raided in hostels and a man brutally murdered.

For the family of Bernard Onyango, 31, what would have been another ordinary morning turned into an agonising search that would end not in hope, but in the cold silence of a hospital morgue, where their loved one had been lying unidentified for days after an attack.

Onyango, a resident of Ondiek Estate, was finally identified at JOOTRH morgue. He had been admitted as an unknown patient after suffering severe injuries in a violent assault.

His death has now become part of a widening pattern of insecurity that is shaking Kisumu’s estates, markets, and streets where fear is slowly becoming routine, and survival increasingly uncertain.

Onyango had left home for what seemed like a normal errand. According to his family, he worked at Nyalenda Railways and also did interior decoration work to support his young family.

That morning of June 25, 2026, he was reportedly heading to pick a parcel near the bus stage when he was ambushed near Juvenile Prison, and he never made it back home.

His brother, Fred Misach, still struggles to understand how a routine morning turned into a fatal encounter.

“My brother Bernard was working at Nyalenda Railways. Around 6am, he went to the bus stage to pick a parcel and was attacked on his way back. He was hit with a metal rod. A motorbike rider found him and reported the matter. Police came, and he was taken to hospital unconscious,” he recounted was he was later told.

“We sensed danger when he did not return home. We called his friends and even checked at his rural home, but no one had information,” Misach said. “We visited hospitals and police stations. Later, we were told there was an assault patient at JOOTRH. We checked the wards in vain. Only later did we go to the morgue, and that is where we found him.”

He pauses often while speaking, struggling to reconcile the image of a hardworking brother with the lifeless body they eventually identified.

Onyango’s belongings, including two phones, money, and the parcel he had gone to collect, were missing. The family believes robbery was part of the attack.

“He was just trying to make a living. He was an expert in interior decoration. Now he is gone,” Misach said. “Kisumu insecurity is getting out of hand. These young men are terrorising us. We need the government to intervene.”

The grief was not confined to Onyango’s immediate household.

His uncle, Ben Otieno, spoke with the exhaustion of a man who feels the ground beneath him shifting.

“We have lost a friend and a family member. Unfortunately, we are witnessing rising insecurity in Kisumu,” he said. “He had five children. Now we are living in fear. This place feels like a trap; we do not know who will be next.”

His concerns reflect the mood across Kisumu’s informal settlements and residential estates where life is no longer predictable, especially at the fall of darkness.

Onyango’s case is only one among many. In recent weeks, Kisumu has recorded a worrying spike in violent street attacks, many of them attributed by residents to organised criminal gangs operating in groups, and on motorbikes.

George Anyul, a businessman and a preacher operating near Polyview, recounted how he was attacked at night despite streetlights being on.

He said three young men on a motorbike approached him from behind and immediately turned violent.

“I was going back to my house after work. It was around 10pm, and only a few steps from my business premises when men on a motorbike approached me, and I sensed danger. I knew something was wrong because the move was unusual. I became alert; they started attacking me,” he said.

What followed was a risky struggle. He fought back, kicking two of the attackers, but in the confrontation his bag, which contained money, phones, and identification documents, fell. That moment of hesitation proved costly.

“When I went for my bag, one of them hit me with a metal rod on the head. I still have complications with my jaw and hearing. I cannot speak properly. I was left to die, found myself later in hospital, and I feared I would not make it, but now I’m lucky to be alive, “ he said.

The attackers escaped with his belongings, and he believes the assailants were part of a larger group of young men who operate in the city with increasing confidence.

“These boys are becoming fearless. They attack even at 8pm or early in the morning. They beat you and take everything. Something is wrong somewhere,” he added.

According to Anyul, some of the young men terrorising residents at night are often spotted at political events, where they are allegedly used for crowd control and intimidation.

“These boys are our own. If you want hired goons, they are readily available. During the day they are used in campaigns, and when there are no political assignments for them, they are on the streets attacking people,” he said.

Anyul questioned why political leaders rarely take a firm public stand against the gangs, suggesting a fear of exposing their own networks.

“You cannot easily condemn them because you know very well when there is a rally, they are the same ones you rely on. So how do you fight what you depend on?” he posed.

Anyul expressed frustration that this relationship between politics and street gangs contributes to the persistence of insecurity in Kisumu.

“This monster that is goonism is what is triggering everything. It is being tolerated because of politics. That is the truth people are avoiding,” he said.

Anyul maintained that the situation could still be reversed if leaders and communities openly disengage from the use of gangs in politics and focus on sustainable solutions.

Coordinated attacks

“If we stop using these young people in politics and give them something meaningful to do, this problem can be solved,” he said.

Across Kisumu estates, Manyatta, Nyalenda, Obunga, Nyamasaria, Migosi, and Mamboleo residents describe a disturbing shift.

What used to be isolated incidents of robbery and opportunistic crimes have, in their view, evolved into coordinated attacks involving groups of young men operating on motorbikes.

Watchmen appear to be among the most vulnerable. In one week alone, multiple incidents were reported: a watchman was killed near Amusement Park at Lake Primary School, another later died at JOOTRH, and others injured in separate attacks in Migosi, Ogango Primary School and Millimani.

Uneasiness spread when a middle-aged woman was allegedly raped and murdered in Kona Mbuta area, Manyatta, on June 27.

According to police reports, her body was discovered dumped after the assault. Residents who discovered the body described a horrifying sight, one that deepened fears of the unchecked criminal activity.

Goonism is increasingly common in Kisumu, but beyond the phenomenon lies a deeper pattern of violence that appears normalised.

A National Crime Research Centre report has previously documented the persistence of such groups across the country, noting that they often engage in robbery, extortion, assault, and other violent crimes while continuing to evolve.

In Kisumu, residents say the pattern is now visible on the ground.

In response to rising insecurity, a high-level county security meeting, led by County Commissioner Ramadhan Mwabudzo and the county leadership, resolved to implement immediate measures to curb mounting crime.

Mwabudzo said the government had agreed on immediate and decisive action to deal with rising insecurity and eliminate criminal groups operating in Kisumu.

He emphasised that political activities would no longer rely on informal or hired groups for security or mobilisation.

“We will eradicate goonism. The county security committee does not condone unregulated security, and we will provide adequate security for all lawful public functions upon request,” said the administrator.

The public transport sector would be closely monitored to remove criminal elements hiding within it, especially around boda boda networks.

“The public transport sector must remain safe and accessible. We are launching joint operations to weed out criminal elements,” said Mwabudzo.

He warned that businesses linked to crime would face closure.

“We will withdraw licenses and permits of enterprises involved in criminal activity with immediate effect.”

On community policing, he promised new structures would be strengthened at grassroots level.

“We are institutionalising Nyumba Kumi and neighborhood committees to improve intelligence sharing and rapid response, and we will deploy an expansive CCTV network with high-definition cameras in residential estates and public zones,” said Mwabudzo.

City Manager Abala Wanga acknowledged that several areas in the city were dark and had become hotspots for criminal activity.

“We have identified 11 dark areas, and we have mapped them as an emergency.”

Unemployment

Some stakeholders argue that what is being labelled as goonism is merely a symptom of deeper structural problems: unemployment, urban decay, and political manipulation.

Lawyer Joshua Nyamori offers a more critical view.

“The issue of goonism is a symptom of a bigger problem,” he said. “We are dealing with unemployment, poor urban management, and weak infrastructure. Until these are fixed, insecurity will persist.”

Nyamori, who is part of a civic pressure group pushing for reform, challenged county leadership to take responsibility.

“In the last few years, we have seen deterioration in lighting, drainage, and market systems. When cities are dark and poorly managed, insecurity thrives,” he said.

He also criticized what he called political silence.

“No one wants to talk about it openly because of political interests. But you cannot fix insecurity with press statements. You fix it with systems. If you don’t give young people opportunities, they will find alternative economies and some of those are criminal.”

Nyamori’s movement, part of the broader Kisumu Rise Initiative, is now collecting data on what areas do not have proper lighting.

Security reports and human rights data suggest Kisumu’s current wave of insecurity is not isolated.

Similar patterns were recorded in past years, including spikes in robbery, sexual violence, and gang activity in estates such as Manyatta, Nyalenda, Obunga, Nyamasaria and Mamboleo.