NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — On a recent Friday morning, groups of young men on motorbikes roared around the grounds of the All Saints Cathedral in Nairobi to disrupt and scare those gathered for a civil meeting about the country’s proposed national budget reforms.
Police officers initially repelled the estimated 50 bikers, who then spread panic into nearby streets by reportedly mugging passersby. But they returned on foot half an hour later and managed to storm into the historic Anglican church, attempting to rob clergy, civil society leaders, lawyers and members of the public.
“Initially, we thought probably it was a politician who had come here to do something, then we realized they were rowdy … In one minute processing, I knew we were under attack,” the Rev. Canon Evans Omollo, provost of the cathedral, told RNS. “I think the person who mobilized the goons wanted to silence our prophetic voice.”
The June 12 attack is the latest underscoring of a rising culture of “goonism” in Kenya, referring to young men from poor neighborhoods believed to be hired by politicians and influential businessmen to attack or intimidate individuals and disrupt meetings associated with political activities the gangs’ bosses oppose. The African nation is grapplin …