Seated in a cold, damp prison cell that has been his home for the past one year, Mickey (not his real name) stares at the ceiling in supplication to God, whom he has repeatedly offended to a point he seems unsure he can be forgiven any more. For the one year he has been at Kamiti Maximum Prison, police have agonised on exactly what charges to prefer against him.
They suspect his involvement in over a dozen capital crimes, ranging from murder, armed robbery to car-jackings, but they are yet to pin him down on any. When police arrested him last year, there was great jubilation at the city’s Jericho/Lumumba estate where he grew up. Everybody in the estate – including school children – knew him as a criminal on the run. But nobody dared report him to police for fear of reprisals.
Indeed, even on the day of his arrest residents celebrated but only in muted tones. His own mother didn’t need to be told that her son was a criminal. She saw it live when one day, three years ago, Mickey, in the company of two others, whipped out a pistol outside a crowded supermarket in Buru Buru estate where they stole a car and drove off in broad-day light. Had there been a shoot-out, Mickey’s mother and aunt would have been caught in the crossfire.
Apparently, Mickey was not aware of the presence of his next of kin at the supermarket. But in this candid but secret interview, Mickey says he has now quit crime for good. He says: “I have had enough of it. If I ever leave this place alive, I will enrol at a theology school and become a preacher. My days in crime are over.” Is he worried that he may actually be charged with a capital offence and sentenced to hang? “Not at all”, he says.
“I have resigned my fate to God. “If they find me guilty and sentence me to die, I will go to meet my maker a reformed man. I have since made my peace with God.” So why not co-operate and willingly give a confession to the police? “Well, they say they have evidence to convict me. They should go ahead and do so. If they table before court evidence I know to be true, I will just accept it and leave my fate to the court.”
And is he ready to confess and seek forgiveness from the many he tormented in his 16 years of gangsterism? “If and when I come out of this place, I will seek them out one by one and make a confession. The tricky part is that some may not be available as I killed them.” Mickey says he was recruited into crime by the most-wanted criminal who police gunned down a few years ago, Edward Shimoli, who was his neighbour in the city’s Jericho/Lumumba estate.
He says he ended up in the world of crime following a troubled childhood as well as growing up in the crime-prone Eastlands area. He says: “The moment a child lacks parental care, love and attention, crime is the next likely destination. In my own case, I grew up in poverty and had parents who didn’t care much about the welfare of their children. I had to fend for myself and for my kid brother at a very tender age.”
But what finally made him choose crime as a career 14 years ago, he says, was when his brother was shot dead by police on suspicion that he was a criminal. “When they killed my brother who I believe was innocent, I told myself that I must avenge his death by killing a policeman. Later, I found myself having to kill other people who may have been as innocent as my felled brother.” He stops short of giving the number of people he has killed – including policemen – and only says: “I have blood of several people on my hands but have asked God to forgive me.” Mickey implicates police as accomplices in crime.
“People expect policemen to be as clean as angels. Unfortunately many are comrades in crime. I know so many serving policemen who work with criminals with whom they share the spoils. Personally, I had several policemen in my payroll. They would tip me on where and when to strike. Twice they also helped in destroying evidence after I had been arrested.” Could the same be the reason why police haven’t charged him one year after his arrest?
“No, this time I am entirely on my own.” Mickey says he had planned to quit crime after building for himself two houses and setting up a business for one of his many girlfriends in Dandora estate. He talks about a “godfather” who is still at large and the mastermind from whom he took directions during his days in crime. “Our godfather lived in Jericho/Lumumba estate at a place called Bel Air. That is where I met and made friends with my “mentor” Edward Shimoli, aka “Edu” and other toughies like Jack Silver and another one we called “Last Born”.”
Mickey says he had “employed” an assistant by the name Todi, who he occasionally assigned to commit crime on his behalf. As if to confirm that there is honour even among thieves, Mickey’s assistant would faithfully hand over to him all he got during his assignments and wait to be given his share by the boss. “He had taken an oath that he wouldn’t keep even a penny from the robberies he staged.
He would hand in everything to me and wait for a “salary” which I faithfully paid him at end month. I had also set aside money for his expenditure while on a mission, besides keeping aside another lumpsum to bail him out in case he got into trouble.” And suppose his assistant decided to be clever and steal from him? “He wouldn’t dare. He had taken an oath to be faithful and never to betray me. If he breached the oath, he knew too well that he would be dead the very same day.”
He says short-changing or betraying a fellow gangster is punishable by “a very painful death. There are no two ways about it.” And how did he get the guns he used to commit crime with? “There is nothing you cannot get in Jericho estate. Whereas there are many adults who have never touched a gun with their own hands, in Jericho children as young as seven know how to handle a gun. We even used primary school children to hide weapons in their desks where police would hardly suspect anything.”
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