As Kenya struggles with rising violent crime, BBC Africa Eye follows one former criminal as he tries to persuade men to turn in their illegal firearms, one gun at a time.
Asked why, he says: “A day will come when my family won’t have anything to eat. They will get hurt eventually. Illegal firearms are smuggled into the country through its porous borders, making Kenya’s civilian possession of weapons unrivalled in East Africa, according to the Institute of Security Studies.
“Upon my release, I discovered many of my friends who were involved in crime had met tragic ends, most of them dying as a result of their criminal lifestyles,” he says.“No-one is born a thief. But even if the youths don’t have work, we are telling them that crime is not good. People should return their illegal guns to the government,” he says.
Kafu says people willing to hand over their illegal firearms to the authorities fear they might become a target themselves. “I am ready to return it. You go and kill someone. You will spend the money you get for it within three months, but you have shed someone’s blood. You have hurt someone and been left with the guilt. That life is trouble.”He describes what happened to a friend who confided in an elder in the community that he wanted to surrender two guns. He was picked up by the police and then found in a mortuary a week later.
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