In their typical use of social media to post death warnings to various gang members, Hessy — a group of rogue police — have adopted the name Saigon Purnisher on Facebook.
On March 25, the Punisher published the images of three young men, probably age 18 to 25, alleged to be knife-wielding robbers terrorising residents of Huruma Las Vegas in Nairobi.
In the post, the Punisher warns the three to get out of town, reform “or be ready to die”.
The caption read: “#These 3 dogs ndio huterorize huruma las Vega metameta na hapo down kwa bridge wahame ama wajiandae kupandwa, hakuna vile wataendelea kudunga raia visu na kujigamba wao ni immortal!!!Don’t reform just continue with your league tutaona who is the champ nonsense (sic).”
Four days later on March 29, the Punisher posted gory images of two of the three young men, lying in blood, pistols at their side.
Hessy also wrote that the two were part of a five-man gang and promised to pump bullets into three more on the run.
“Na sitaki maswali wacha mbwa zikufe, sikio la kufa halisikii dawa two down five to come (sic),” he wrote.
Hessy is believed to be a rogue police officer or officers operating in the area. His/their continued existence — actually shameless flourishing — is chilling, given that top police commanders have often denied any police squad that eliminates suspected criminals.
On March 21, Saigon Punisher or Hessy uploaded two images of young men shot dead and a screenshot of a Star expose about the killer police squad. The caption said they would kill more men if they were robbers.
The March 21 post confirmed this, with the Hessy expressing the frustration of anti-crime officers when the judicial system allows hardcore criminals to walk free on bail.
The post read: The photo below are two different mongoloids each with more than three cases of robbery, rape and mugging, the questions are how did they get their freedom??
“You can brand us all sorts of names as you wish killers, dreaded cops, vampires or whatever but get my message wherever you are, #No_armed_robber will remain in Kenya I swear unless they flee to Uganda, Do you know how many officers have died after being shot by armed robbers?? Sometimes you need to reason with soberness, how many times have you visited the families and relative wenye wamedhulumiwa na wezi?”
Adding, “Endeleeni na pa’nga’nga zenyu tuu but I’ve stated there that NO ARMED ROBBER WILL BE LEFT ALIVE TO TERRORIZE THE INNOCENT LAW ABIDING CITIZENS, you can screen shot the post and used it to apply for a loan I don’t care nonsense (sic).”
DCI boss George Kinoti publicly wept at harrowing tales of heartless killings by people posing as crime busters in slums. He said it wasn’t going to happen on his watch.
On February 28 in Kayole, he said, “May God Himself curse me. No one will ever cover for a police officer who kills under my watch.” Kinoti was accompanied by DPP Noordin Haji.
But the ‘crime busters’ are at it again, in fact, they never stopped. Now they’re promising to double down on those they call criminals.