Lynchings in Modern Kenya and Inequitable Access to Basic Resources: a Major Human Rights Scandal and One Contributing Cause

Lynchings in modern Kenya and inequitable access to basic resources: A major human rights scandal and one contributing cause

Dr. Robert Guy McKee, Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics, Assistant Professor

Abstract: By reference to mostly Kenyan media data on a sample of roughly 1,500 persons reported lynched from August 1996 through August 2013, modern Kenyan lynchings (1) are common, (2) are savage, (3) are for numerous alleged reasons (mostly for alleged crimes), (4) are rarely prosecuted, (5) appear to have inequitable access to basic resources as one contributing cause, (6) are a major human rights scandal, and (7) will, while they continue apace, hinder Ken- ya’s development in the twenty-first century. Annual lynchings per capita have sometimes greatly exceeded those of the worst years of America’s recorded lynching history, with the Kenya Po- lice reporting, for example, 543 mob justice killings for 2011. Lynchings are by numerous cruel methods, rarely if ever by the historical American norms of hanging and shooting. Among alleged reasons for them are larcenies, murder, witchcraft (with greed for land sometimes alleged behind witch allegations), rape, adultery, and gang membership—rarely if ever ethnicity or either sexual orientation or gender identity. Part of the human rights scandal of Kenyan lynchings is the recent downplaying in U.S. Department of State Kenya country reports on human rights practices of shockingly numerous lynchings vis-à-vis comparatively few cases—none lethal—of discrimination, abuse, and violence based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

1. Introduction

In the preface to his outstanding popular work At the hands of persons unknown: The lynching of black America, writer-historian Philip Dray (2002) wrote, “Lynching, as everyone knows, has always had a special power to make us want to look the other way” (2002:xii). Whether or not lynching anywhere has any such special power, it is lynching that I want us to look at in the present papera—and, more specifically, it is lynchings in modern Kenya. What I do in the paper is make seven assertions about these lynchings, supporting each, more or less, from mostly Kenyan media data and other published materials. The seven assertions are, that lynchings in Kenya (1) are common, (2) are cruel, (3) are committed for numerous alleged reasons— mostly for alleged crimes—but very rarely for reasons related either to race or to sexual orientation or gender identity, (4) are rarely prosecuted, (5) appear to have inequitable access to basic resources as one contributing cause, (6) are a major human rights scandal, and (7) will, until they become the exception rather than the rule, hinder Kenya’s development in the twenty-first century. The great extent to which lynchings in Kenya are common, cruel, and not prosecuted explains largely my judgment that they are a major human rights scandal.b I highlight that these lynchings are very rarely for reasons related either to race or to sexual orientation or gender identity since it is not a lynching’s motive, racial or otherwise, that makes it a violation of one or more human rights; more simply, it is the bare denial of due process, the bare murder, and the other bare vio- a I presented the paper’s initial version at the 73rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in Den- ver, March 19-23, 2013. The paper session was S-102, Human Rights, Saturday afternoon, March 23. The conference theme was natural resource distribution and development in the twenty-first century. I thank Manfred Berg for helpful comments on a late draft of the paper’s for-publication version. All copy-edits I note—for capitalization, punctuation, and grammar—are my own. What faults the paper retains are my own. b The extent to which the paper focuses on human rights is a function of my having prepared its initial version for an applied anthropology conference session concerned with human rights (see note a). GIAL Special Electronic Publications 2013 lations involved. Inequitable access to basic resources as a contributing cause was a tie-in to the theme of the conference for which I prepared the paper’s initial version, as was the assertion that lynchings, until they become rare, will hinder Kenya’s continuing modern development. The Kenyan media data that I cite in my paper—mostly from the Nation, Standard, and Star newspapersc—are ones I have gathered off and on from August 1996 through August 2013. This was, for twelve years, as a kind of hobby while I was resident in Kenya on other business; then, from June 2009, it has been from the U.S. via the Internet. These media data concern roughly 1,500 of the many more persons lynched in Kenya over that period. They are most complete for February 2011 through August 2013, during which I searched the net almost daily for lynching-related material. For as many of the data that I cite as I have found possible, I have provided links so that the data themselves can be examined. While I have not yet done enough with a database to permit me to make any quantitative statements from my data, what I believe I am indeed in a good position to do is to strongly include Kenyan perspectives on Kenyan lynchings in what I say about them. The paper is much heavier on ethnography than analysis. In any case, I do not pretend that it does more than begin to scratch the surface of the anthropology of lynchings in Kenya. I have revised and lengthened the paper some from its conference version. I do hope to follow the paper up with a book in as many as several volumes, modeled in large part (and assuming I receive needed copyright permissions) after Ralph Ginzburg’s (1988) powerful 100 years of lynchings.d Not surprisingly for the attention it pays to human rights and development, the paper is openly intended as advocacy anthropology. The advocacy is especially for Kenya’s poor, weak, and defenseless, relatively speaking, which categories together—including the criminal poor— make up the vast majority of the country’s lynching victims. Before proceeding with the paper’s seven assertions, I start by explaining its use of the term ‘lynch’ against a bit of anthropological and other scholarly background. Simply put, the paper tries to allow Kenyan media uses of the term and derivatives of it (e.g., ‘lynched’, ‘lynching’) to speak for themselves, with no effort to distill from them any Kenyan national-cultural definition. My sense is that Kenya’s media use the term much as it is defined by American and British English dictionaries—viz., with a meaning close to “to put to death (as by hanging) by mob action without legal sanction” and as exemplified in the sentence “The accused killer was lynched by an angry mob.”e What appears to me correct Kenyan usage includes the elements of (1) put-

c The Nation and Standard I think of as Kenya’s two leading, national dailies; the Star I think of as third or lower. Welsh (2010), a different kind of study of mob violence than mine, includes microanalysis that relies heavily on a dataset of reports drawn from local (versus national) newspapers (2010:125, 142). It has been for lack of time to devote to the task involved, not for any other reason, that I have not tried to gather data on Kenyan lynchings from local as well as national newspapers. d After a brief foreword and a single prefatory quote, Ginzburg (1988 [1962], Baltimore, Maryland, Black Classic Press) is composed of a series of chronologically-arranged newspaper articles about American lynchings and their context (1988:9-252) followed by an appendix entitled ‘A partial listing of approximately 5,000 Neg[r]oes lynched in United States since 1859’ (1988:253-70). As one of the first books that I read about American lynchings, I found it powerful, highly educational, and greatly disturbing. e Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Thesaurus Online, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lynch. Four similar definitions from other online English dictionaries are as follows: “to put to death, especially by hanging, by mob action and without legal authority,” http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/lynch; “[t]o punish (a person) without legal process or authority, especially by hanging, for a perceived offense or as an act of bigotry,” http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Lynch; “If a crowd of people lynch someone who they believe is guilty of a crime, they kill them without a legal trial, usually by hanging (= killing using a rope round the neck),” 2

GIAL Special Electronic Publications 2013 ting to death, (2) by more or less of a mob, and (3) extra-judicially—i.e., without due process of law.1 Where Kenyan lynchings clearly depart from American and British English dictionary definitions of ‘lynch’ is where any preference for hanging as the method is concerned, since Kenyan mobs very rarely if ever employ that method (see below where I assert that Kenyan lynchings are cruel). Interestingly to me as an anthropologist, lynching may indeed, in some national and other contexts, have a power to make us want to look the other way; otherwise, I have to work to understand the absence of any form of ‘lynch’ from the subject index of any of nine introductory- level cultural anthropology texts that I have in my office library, or of the first ten such texts with a subject index I could consult that I looked at recently at Amazon.com.f Given that some schol- ars maintain that lynching presumes a modern state context (one recent example is Berg 2011),g I can understand no mention of lynching in introductory-text treatments of pre-state social control. What I cannot understand—not comfortably for American anthropology—is why recent postcolonial lynchings—e.g., Kenyan theft-allegation and other lynchings from the 1990s, Indone- sian keroyokan mobbings (including lynchings) from the mid-1990s through mid-2000s,2 north- ern Tanzanian witch-allegation and other lynchings from the 2000s, or Papua New Guinean sorcery-allegation lynchings from the 2010s—receive no mention as mechanisms of informal social control of the modern state, alongside such stalwarts as public opinion, corporate lineages, supernatural belief systems, etc.h Bohannan, ed. (1967), which is about (sub-Saharan) African homicide and suicide, includes among its brief case summaries some that suggest to me roots or foundation for some postcolonial lynching in some pre-colonial African cultures. (The Bohannan volume, possibly in agreement with those who maintain that lynching presumes the modern state, does not have any form of ‘lynch’ as an index entry.) Fallers & Fallers (1967), for example, say the following sandwiched around the last case summary they present:

We may appropriately end with a case which illustrates the uncertainty which is often the consequence of change in society’s methods of securing order. “Self- help” or “vigilante” justice is, as we pointed out earlier, not accepted in present- day Busoga [southeastern Uganda, Bantu]. That is to say, any Musoga, upon being questioned, will insist that criminals should be turned over to the authorities

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/lynch; “(of a mob) kill (someone), especially by hanging, for an alleged offense with or without a legal trial,” http://oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/lynch. f I am referring here to online searches that I did January 5, 2013. g For historian Berg (2011), “To speak of lynching as extralegal punishment takes for granted the principle that only government institutions have the authority to enforce the law, suppress crime, and punish criminals. In short, the word lynching assumes the existence of the modern state which, theoretically, holds a [‘]monopoly of legitimate violence[’]” (unnumbered preface page, Kindle edition). For me, somewhat contrarily, the legitimate political authority of a pre-state society might be challenged by a lynching—i.e., by a mob-punishment murder judged illegiti- mate by the jural norms of the culture—as easily as by any more ordinary murder. Thus, where I assume Berg would discount by definition anthropologist Hoebel’s (1954) Carib, Comanche, and Eskimo examples of lynchings (1954:300, 142, 81, respectively), I would discount them as examples rather of these peoples’ exercise of legitimate, jural (versus legal) death penalties. What is more important to me about Berg on lynching(s), though I do too little with analysis in the present paper to make it clear, is the extent to which I agree with and find stimulating his analyt- ic work. h Ferraro & Andreatta (2010) is an introductory-level text I have used that includes each of public opinion, corporate lineages, and supernatural belief systems in a list of some of the world’s cultures’ informal means of social control (2010:328-33). 3

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for trial. Faced with the actual thief breaking into his house, however, he and his neighbours very often respond in terms of an older set of standards, according to which the village community had to provide for itself security of life and property. … Thus what in traditional Busoga was a legitimate form of punishment is slowly coming to be regarded as a kind of crime (1967:92-93, from more than one paragraph in the original).

In the same Bohannan-edited volume, La Fontaine (1967), concerning Gisu (eastern Uganda), writes of legitimacy in killing thieves, adulterers, and sorcerers, whether this is done by a single person or by some number:

Action against a thief or adulterer is defense of individual property; the responsibility lies on one man [viz., the owner or husband]. Action against a sorcerer is the result of a series of acts which have lost him the support of the community; in a sense, his killers are agents of the community at large. It is said that elders of a lineage might even, after consultation, depute some young men to kill a recog- nized witch or sorcerer who was considered a public menace.

Homicide in these three instances is largely a matter of social control in that it is the ultimate sanction for conformity with social norms. An attack on another person’s property, including his wife, or anti-social behavior which lays a man open to the charge of being a witch or sorcerer, both threaten the norms of Gisu society. The killing which may follow is then just (1967:100-01).

I proceed, now, with each of the paper’s seven assertions in turn.

2. Seven assertions concerning lynchings in modern Kenya

First, lynchings in Kenya are common. They are common to the point that they are recog- nized by many Kenyans, for better or for worse, as part of their national culture. In 2011, according to a Kenya Police crime statistic for that year, they were more than three-and-a-half times as common, per capita, as lynchings in America during the worst year of recorded U.S. lynching history.i In his wittily satirical How to be a Kenyan (1996), the late Kenyan humorist Wahome Mutahi devoted one of the book’s twenty-seven essays to lynching. The essay’s title—‘A neck-

i ‘Annual crime report for the year 2011,’ Kenya Police, http://www.kenyapolice.go.ke/resources/CRIME%20REPORT%202011.pdf, accessed 2 Feb 2013. Statistics from the same 2011 Kenya Police report by no means have every part of Kenya equally given to lynching, as the year’s figure for Nyanza is 108 while that for North Eastern is zero (though there may in fact be underreporting here for North Eastern). Thus, in saying that lynchings in Kenya are common, I am not saying they are either common or equally common throughout the whole of the country. Comparisons at various points in the paper with America’s lynching history are not meant to paint Kenya in a harshly negative light vis-à-vis the U.S. I have no reason to doubt Berg’s (2010) statement that, “while precise numbers are unavailable, historians agree that the total extent of collective violence during the Reconstruction era, including lynching-style executions, exceeded even the levels of the 1890s, which are often considered the heyday of lynching in American history” (2010:87), and that Reconstruction-era lynchings of blacks in the South may some years have numbered in the thousands (2010:ibid.; Dray 2002:47-49). 4

GIAL Special Electronic Publications 2013 lace for all sizes’—alludes to one of the number of methods of modern Kenyan lynchings—viz., that of placing a tire around the victim’s neck, so to speak, and burning the victim alive inside it. The book’s Amazon.com webpage describes the book in part as “a series of hilarious essays about what it means to be a Kenyan”; its back cover advertises it as “so painfully true that you will want to hide it from all non-Kenyans,” adding that, “It helps Kenyans to reflect on and laugh at the peculiarities of thought, manner, and attitude which make them Kenyan, while lessening considerably the culture shock for those non-Kenyans who come into contact with Kenya.” The lynching essay includes mention of what Kenyans must know to avoid being lynched. The fact that such a book can treat lynching with any humor, alongside or as part of such topics as peculiarities of Kenyan English and warning signs taken to mean the opposite of what they say (e.g., “Don’t run in the bar”)j—while this fact speaks to me of lynchings as an embarrassing-to-some reality of everyday Kenyan life, it may yet be very difficult for any with a human rights perspective on lynchings to comprehend. “A routine crime,” says the title of a 2009 Economist article on lynchings in Kenya. Part of the article’s subtitle calls such mob justice “alarmingly common.” The article proper starts with a one-paragraph report of a triple-lynching near an upscale Nairobi shopping center. The lynchings are provoked by the sidewalk theft of a mobile phone. The phone’s owner manages to catch hold of the thief; an instant mob stones to death the thief and two accomplices; the mob, dispersing, resumes walking to work while police remove three bodies. The second paragraph then continues, “Nobody knows how many such lynchings happen in Kenya every year. What is certain is that they are commonplace. Some [Members of Parliament] worry that violence is on the rise as more people lack jobs and young men are frustrated. The lack of statistics is itself telling.”3 The lack of official statistics available to the public changed in 2011—the first year that the Kenya Police published mob justice statistics (for lethal lynchings) as an independent crime category—with an annual crime report figure of 543.k This compares with America’s worst-year figure of 230 for 1892,l as with some earlier Kenya figures, cited in U.S. Department of State Kenya country reports on human rights practices, of “almost 500” for 1992, 508 for 1993, and 240 for 2000.4, m Kenya’s media present lynchings as commonplace, as unremarkable (for the most part), as normally lacking what Rogers (2003) calls news ‘salience’: j Kenway Publications, Nairobi, ‘A necklace for all sizes,’ 49-51; ‘“Flied lice”,’ 4-7; ‘No warnings please, we are Kenyans,’ 71-72. The ‘No warnings please’ essay cautions Kenyans against running in circumstances where other Kenyans are likely to interpret this as attempted escape from apprehension and lynching for whatever alleged crime or other offense. See the book’s full Amazon.com description and one review at http://www.amazon.com/How-be- Kenyan-Wahome-Mutahi/dp/9966465626/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359226329&sr=8- 1&keywords=wahome+mutahi+how+to+be+a+kenyan, accessed 14 Apr 2013. k ‘Annual crime report for the year 2011,’ Kenya Police (see note i). See concerning ‘mob injustice’ on pages 2-3 and 11-13. The report uses the term ‘mob justice’ eleven times, appears to be inconsistent by using ‘mob injustice’ twice, and does not use ‘lynch’ or any derivative term even once (though Kenya’s media do use ‘lynch’ and derivative terms regularly). Although it at no point defines ‘mob justice’ formally as lethal lynching, it does say of it, in a section of recommendations, that, “Persons involved, when arrested, are charged with murder” (2011:12). l Tuskegee Institute figure, http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/shipp/lynchingyear.html, accessed 3 Feb 2013. White (1969 [1928]) asserts a slightly higher 235 (1969:231); Berg (2011), in saying that, “In the election year of 1892, at least 161 blacks were lynched” (2011:95), appears to be allowing for a figure at least slightly greater than 230. m For the U.S. Department of State country reports that I have found available on the Internet from 1977, I believe it is only from 1992 that they treat what they have variously called ‘mob violence’ (the most frequent term by far), ‘public executions by civilians’ (used just twice), ‘mob justice’, or ‘vigilante justice’. The reports seldom refer to mob violence killings with a form of ‘lynch’. 5

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Salience is the degree to which a news event is perceived as important by individuals. What determines this salience of a news event? The media convey to their audience strong clues about the degree to which media professionals judge an event to have high news value: whether a news story is given bulletin status (that is, by interrupting regular broadcasts), whether it appears in bold headlines or at the top of a news show, and the length of broadcast time or news space allotted to the news story (2003:77-78).

Thus, a given lynching incident is often reported by just one of the Nation, Standard, or Star, and conversely, it is infrequent that any one lynching incident is reported by all three. Similarly, lynchings are seldom front-page news; they are likely, rather, to be reported as briefs, or as regional or local news, or as non-headline items in crime roundup articles. When reported as one of however many briefs—as, e.g., in a narrow vertical column of such—a lynching brief might appear anywhere from top to bottom in the column; when reported as a non-headline item in a crime roundup, the lynching item is often introduced—consistent with its relative lack of salience in the roundup—by a sentence beginning with “Meanwhile, …” or “Elsewhere, ….” The text of some newspaper lynching reports is no longer than a single sentence.5 A Star article of July 24, 2012 reported five persons lynched in Nairobi in five separate incidents the previous Sunday night, though without making most of even this much clear until the initial two sentences of the article’s last of three paragraphs: “Five other suspected thieves were lynched to death in Kibera Soweto, Kahawa Wendani, Dandora Estate, Canaan Village, Kayole Estate, Rasta Stage and in Kitengela. All the bodies were later transferred to the City Mortuary.”6 In such ways, Kenya’s media present lynchings, whether or not regrettably, as part of Kenyan culture—as part of the norm for Kenya. Likewise, Kenya’s newspapers also sometimes contain Kenyan reader, columnist, and editorial opinions to the effect that Kenya is a nation that lynches. Thus, in relation to one of Kenya’s many costly Government scandals (for none of which anyone of significance, to the best of my knowledge, has ever been held responsible), Standard reader Jack Onyango grumbles,

All our problems lie with Western ideas about justice. We’re a country of public stonings and lynchings. So we understand Chinese tactics like firing squads for those involved in a milk scandal that killed six babies. Next time President Kibaki meets his Chinese pals, they [viz., the Chinese] should make execution of looters of public coffers a condition for [Chinese foreign] aid [to Kenya]. We’ll never hear about stolen maize again!7

Thus again, in ironic contrast to what journalist Peter Mwaura says is Kenyans’ penchant for buying fake or stolen goods,

Kenyans will enthusiastically, and with extreme moral outrage, lynch a suspected thief. We are a nation of lynchers. On average, Kenyans lynch one or two suspected thieves daily, according to police 2011 statistics. According to the police statistics, 543 people were lynched last year, with 133 of them reported in Nairobi alone. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Not all lynchings are reported.8

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And thus again, there is the opening line of Elizabeth Njora’s ‘Have your say’ piece: “Mob justice cases have become so common, it is frightening.”9 In addition, for each Kenyan politician or union official reported in a news article as condemning lynching (which does sometimes happen), it seems there is another reported as either encouraging or threatening with it—with apparent impunity.10 That Kenyans lynch as they do—more or less daily; normally—is part of what informs the judgment of some that theirs is a culture of violence.11 During April-August 2013, the most recent five-full-months’ period for which I have data on Kenyan lynchings, I downloaded reports from the Nation, Standard, and Star that reported, on average, over 1.2 lynchings per day for the 153 days concerned (see Appendix 1). These are media-reported lynchings from just three of Kenya’s national print media, so they will be fewer in number, surely by many, than those of any eventual Kenya Police or other Government report for the same period. When I assert that lynchings in Kenya are common, I am not talking about Kenya’s far past; I am talking, indisputably, about Kenya’s recent past and present. To have seven persons reported lynched on May 6, 2013 alone in close to as many separate criminal incidents is for lynchings to be indeed common.12 To have the lynching of five suspected robbers in a single incident reported as a non-headline item in a June 29, 2013 crime roundup article, again, is for lynchings to be indeed common.13 Second, lynchings in Kenya are cruel. The point may seem obvious; however, since international horror at these mob violence killings may prove vital to their being stopped, it bears spelling out at some length. There is a sense in which cruel is in the eye of the beholder; there is also the common dictionary sense in which I intend the word here, and which I believe Kenyans too intend when they use cruel and like adjectives to describe either particular Kenyan lynchings or Kenyan lynchings generally. According to its current merriam-webster.com token, that dictionary sense of cruel starts with “causing or conducive to injury, grief, or pain”; it includes as well “unre- lieved by leniency,” as in a “cruel punishment”; it is a sense rounded out by a list of synonyms that includes barbaric, brutal, fiendish, inhuman, sadistic, savage, vicious, and red in tooth and claw; and it is a sense that is shared by the dictionary phrase cruel and unusual punishment, defined as “punishment to include torture, barbarous punishments, degrading punishments not known to the common law, and punishments so disproportionate to the offense as to shock the general moral sense.”14 (As an anthropologist, I am aware that the terms ‘savage’ and ‘barbaric’ have evolutionist connotations, especially within anthropology, and that some take great offense at them for this reason. At the same time, some Kenyans do use these terms—in their dictionary senses, clearly enough, I believe—to describe not just Kenyan lynchings, but also the killings of certain animals by poachers.15) Lynchings in Kenya, then, cruel as I assert them to be, are thus by a wide variety of methods. These include at least stoning, beating, bludgeoning, hacking or otherwise injuring with various kinds of blades (e.g., machetes, swords, spears, knives), chopping with axes, assault with various kinds of crude implements (e.g., hoes), shooting with arrows, burning alive (including by so-called necklacing), burying alive, and various combinations thereof—as sometimes assisted by whipping, kicking, and other such non-primary methods.16 They are never unambiguously, by any of my data, by the presumed-typical American method of hanging;17 nor, unless one counts certain extra-judicial killings by police or other Government agents as lynchings (as some in fact do),18 are they ever by shooting.n When by stoning, which may have some claim to be a typical, n American lynchings were perhaps most often by hanging (see, e.g., Berg’s 2011:66 description of frontier lynchings as normally by hanging); they were also sometimes by shooting or a combination of hanging and shooting (see, 7

GIAL Special Electronic Publications 2013 more traditional Kenyan method,19 they can result in the victim’s brains being literally bashed from the skull.20 They sometimes involve lengthier, more deliberate torture than might be said to be part of any norm.21 My impression is that they very rarely involve the taking and displaying of human body parts as trophies.22 Some data that illustrate both their methods and their cruelty are as follows: In December 1996, a mob from a Nairobi slum village lynched a watchman sent as part of an eviction squad to demolish their village. The victim “was stalked, chased around, cornered, stoned and beaten unconscious, doused with paraffin [i.e., kerosene] and set on fire.” The mob, armed with sticks, rungus,o and stones, pursued the victim as he “ran for his life, screaming and pleading for mercy.” The victim fell to the ground under a hail of stones; a man slashed him with a panga.p As he “asked for forgiveness from the crowd baying for his blood,” they covered him with wood and other inflammables. Each time he lifted his head, someone struck him. “A woman doused him with fuel as he writhed in pain, then another man lit the match and set the hapless watchman ablaze.” The mob then “stood by cheering and watched him die.” The next day, a Na- tion editorial decried the lynching, saying the watchman’s participation in the eviction squad was no excuse for killing him “in such a cruel manner.”23 In July 2006, a mob lynched six youths alleged to be robbers and rapists behind a wave of crime in Nakuru Town. Having learned the identities of the youths by beating another suspect, the mob found them playing cards the next day in a residential estate. The youths attempted to flee; the mob, armed, apprehended them, battered them, frog-marched them to an open field, then doused them with gasoline and set them on fire. Police said two of the youths did not die until shortly after police arrived on the scene.24 Reacting from Australia to news of this incident, a “clearly disappointed” Kenyan wrote “to say how saddened he was by the barbaric behaviour of the Nakuru villagers who took the law into their own hands and killed a group of young people caught playing cards because they suspected them of being robbers.”25 A Nation article from end August 2011, noting that 104 people had been lynched across the country in July-August of that year,q reported concerns that mob violence had become commonplace in Kenya. “The victims were cornered by crowds and stoned, set ablaze, bludgeoned with clubs or chopped with machetes. Many of them were suspected of committing petty crimes like burglary, pickpocketing, [and] mugging[,] as well as snatching handbags and mobile phones on the streets.”26 The next day, a Nation editorial protested, “It is uncivilised, atavistic and totally unacceptable that violent mobs have the licence to kill suspected criminals in total disregard of due process. The killings are carried out in the most painful and barbaric way, including stoning suspects to death or burning them alive.”27 Many Kenyan lynchings are cruel by the appalling lack of fit—except, apparently, to those perpetrating, applauding, or condoning them—of punishment to alleged crime (see below,

e.g., Wells-Barnett’s 2002:197 “the ordinary procedure of hanging and shooting” and White’s 1969:22 “the conven- tional hanging or shooting”); and, as evidenced by the title Rope and faggot of long-time NAACP president Walter White’s 1928 book about the lynching of American blacks, they were sometimes by burning alive (in relation to which kind of more vastly cruel method White 1969:20 wrote of “relatively painless hanging or shooting”). While I do not recall having seen percentages for any of these or less common methods for the over 4,700 recorded Ameri- can lynchings from 1882, well less than half of the twenty-one 1930 lynchings of Raper (1933) were by hanging and more of the twenty-one were by shooting than hanging. o ‘Rungu’ is the KiSwahili term for a kind of East African hardwood throwing club or cudgel similar in form to a knobkerrie or shillelagh. p ‘Panga’ is the KiSwahili term for a kind of heavy, broad-bladed cutting instrument similar in form to a machete. q The last year of 100 or more recorded lynchings in U.S. lynching history (not the last two-month period) was 1901. 8

GIAL Special Electronic Publications 2013 under the paper’s third assertion, some of the relatively petty reasons for which Kenyans sometimes lynch).28 For some Kenyan lynchings, this lack of fit may be total for the fact that the victims, not a few of them elderly, were evidently or at least arguably innocent of any crime.29 If it is hard to imagine the cruelty of which white American mobs, historically, were sometimes guilty in burning black victims alive, one today can go on YouTube and watch parts of a number of recent lynchings in which Kenyan mobs are similarly cruel.30 One can also read written and watch video reactions to such lynchings.31 That these lynchings are cruel is, I believe, without question. A pertinent question for Kenyan lynch mobs remains, apparently: Do they see any punishment as too cruel for those they lynch? Third, lynchings in Kenya are committed for numerous alleged reasons—mostly for alleged crimes—but very rarely for reasons related either to race or to sexual orientation or gender identity. The list of alleged crimes for which Kenyans are reported to lynch appears headed by theft (which term, I believe, Kenyans sometimes use in the sense of larceny more broadly) and it includes witchcraft (also called sorcery in media accounts concerned). The size of an alleged theft need not be great for it to be punished by lynching. Neither sexual orientation nor gender identity nor same-sex sex figures prominently, if at all, among the list’s alleged sex- related crimes. Ethnicity-related lynchings are reported with any frequency only around elections. My data on approximately 1,500 persons lynched contain no incidents of white-on-black or black-on-white lynching—i.e., of lynchings that might be construed as racially-motivated; all are black-on-black. Kenyans say they “take the law in their hands”r and lynch criminal suspects as they do because they distrust the police and the courts to protect them and provide them justice.32 Reporting 508 people murdered by mob violence in 1993, the U.S. Department of State’s Kenya country report on human rights practices for that year summarized saying, “Most victims were either suspected thieves or were accused of being sorcerers.”33 The Nation article that reported 104 lynchings for July-August 2011 said that, while most victims of the cases from around Nairobi were suspected thieves, “in rural areas, besides suspected thieves, those lynched were victims of land disputes as well as others accused of practising witchcraft.”34 The following is a list of just something of the range of items or categories of items for which I have reports of alleged larcenists being lynched in Kenya: a person;35 motorcycles, cars, other motorized vehicles, bicycles;36 money, jewelry, wallets, handbags, mobile phones, other valuables carried or worn on the person;37 money or goods from a shop or other business premis- es;38 household goods—e.g., computers, other electronics, sewing machines, furniture, clothes;39 car parts or accessories, personal effects from inside a car;40 telecommunications cable;41 cattle, goats, rabbits, chickens, the milk from a neighbor’s cow;42 sacks of coffee or potatoes;43 toma- toes, green maize, maize, kale, arrowroot, other farm or garden vegetables;44 votes, or even vic- tory, in an election.45 Sex-related crimes or acts for which I have reports of suspects being lynched are rape (or attempted rape), adultery, sex with an animal (e.g., a cow), and sodomizing a minor.46 The one story I have collected that reports the lynching of a gay or lesbian in Kenya I found on the website Identity Kenya, Kenya’s LGBTI and sex-work community website. That article, dated June 16, 2012, was an update that reports the mob violence killing concerned as having happened May 27, 2012. When I consulted the website again in February 2013, I found no additional such reports (of gays being lynched); also, the article I had found previously no longer carried a date,

r Kenyan media reports use both “take the law in their hands” and “take the law in their own hands.” 9

GIAL Special Electronic Publications 2013 its headline no longer announced its contents as an update, and I noticed that two of three reader comments expressed less than complete confidence in the story’s veracity.47 Other crimes blamed for many lynchings are various kinds of assault, both lethal and non-lethal,48 and witchcraft.s Witchcraft is indeed a crime in Kenya, according to Kenyan law’s Witchcraft Act.49 Enacted during the colonial era in 1925, this act treats alleged or pretended witchcraft, alleged or pretended witches, and paraphernalia associated with and fears and other alleged effects of the same (e.g., damage to person or property); it nowhere states that witchcraft has any reality in fact. Since witchcraft’s most serious alleged effect—death—is the same as that of any lethal assault,50 it may be, analytically, that witchcraft should be seen as an alleged means of assault sometimes met by lynching. Membership in one or another kind of criminal gang, also blamed for many lynchings, presumes participation with others in one or more criminal activities—e.g., one or more kinds of larceny together with one or more kinds of assault.51 From 1998, U.S. Department of State Kenya country reports on human rights practices include as one of the suspected criminal activities for which the great majority of mob violence victims were killed membership in “terror gangs,” “terrorist gangs,” or “criminal or terrorist gangs.”52 I do not believe my data include any cases of ethnicity-related lynchings that were not a part of either pre- or post-election violence. During the violence that followed the December 2007 national elections (elections that involved more or less rigging by both sides), some number of people were lynched after mobs identified their ethnicity from their names as found on their national identity cards.53 The fact of ethnicity-related lynchings around elections appears to me due in part to Kenyans reacting to the alleged rigging of an election as to an act of theft, and to all members of the ethnic community of the politician deemed guilty of the rigging as together responsible for it. Thus, when a journalist, during the post-election violence of early 2008, asked a newly-elected councillor, “Why are you killing people, you guys?” the councillor’s retort was, “These are not people. These are thieves.”54 Ironically, where Kenyans’ despising theft and rationalizing the lynching of thieves is concerned, SUNY-Buffalo law professor Makau Mutua says they have themselves become “a nation of thieves,” however much they pretend to be religious: “But we pretend to be a religious nation. Don’t make me laugh. Unless being religious—Christian, Muslim, Hindu, or a kamuti believer (Kamba spell)—means that you can “pinch” that which isn’t yours with impunity.”55 Fourth, lynchings in Kenya are rarely punished by law. Police officials are often reported, in the wake of lynchings, as warning people that those who “take the law in their hands” will be punished by law, and as telling them they must instead hand criminal suspects over to the police.56 Nonetheless, I have seldom seen reported arrests of members of lynch mobs, let alone prosecutions, convictions, or punishment. The Kenya Police defend their lack of arrests here, saying that no one will testify against members of lynch mobs—reminiscent, historically, of the common American-South grand jury conclusion, “At the hands of persons unknown.”

s From 1992, a large majority of U.S. Department of State Kenya country reports on human rights practices mention suspicion of sorcery or witchcraft (interchangeable terms here) in a short list of causes of mob violence killings— e.g., “the burning of those accused of sorcery” (1992), “cases of “mob justice” included a father and son burned to death by mobs on suspicion of being wizards” (1996), “at least 16 persons killed on suspicion of practicing witchcraft” (1998), “Occasionally[,] mobs killed members of their communities on suspicion that they practiced witchcraft” (2001), “There were reports that mobs killed members of their communities on suspicion that they practiced witchcraft” (2004), “Mob violence against individuals suspected of witchcraft was a problem, particularly in Kisii, Luo Nyanza, and Western Province” (2005). See, for links to the reports concerned, notes 4 (1992), 52 (1998, 2001, 2004, 2005), and 62 (1996). 10

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The Nation editorial that protested the 104 lynchings of July-August 2011 said that not a single person had been arrested from recent cases.57 From 1992, one or more U.S. Department of State Kenya country reports on human rights practices have noted each of the following: that there were reports of police turning a blind eye to some lynchings;58 that Kenya’s security forces, in spite of public statements by the president that mob violence must stop, had not made its suppression a priority;59 that, “The Govern- ment condemned [mob violence killings] but has taken no action to address the problem, as it treats such incidents as individual cases of murder” (the last part meaning, I believe, that it sees a murder as a murder, whether or not it is committed by a mob);60 that the Government, though condemning lynchings, had taken no action to address the problem, nor arrested any participants in the violence;61 that the Government, though condemning mob justice and investigating lynchings, had not arrested any participants in them;62 that most perpetrators of mob violence went unpunished;63 that most perpetrators of mob violence went unpunished and that there were no developments in cases reported in previous years;64 that the Government rarely made arrests for mob violence or vigilante justice, or prosecuted the perpetrators;65 that there was no news of “official action,”66 no “developments,”67 no action taken by year’s end68 for certain cases of lethal mob violence mentioned in country reports of one or more previous years; that police did not intervene to prevent the May 2011 mob killing of a married couple accused of a witchcraft murder and that no action had been taken by year’s end;69 that, “Human rights observers attributed vigilante violence to a lack of public confidence in police and the criminal justice system, in which assailants evaded arrest or bribed their way out of jail. … Police frequently failed to act to stop mob violence.”70 And again from 1992, there have been only three Kenya country reports—those for 1997, 1998, and 2009—that note the Government having arrested and charged in court many people (or even any) for taking part in mob violence.71 According to Kenya’s media, official warnings to the public against the lynching of criminal suspects are sometimes met with derision. Thus, villagers’ response to one such warning was reported to be jeering, booing, and the message that they would continue to kill suspected criminals. What the villagers concerned had done was to burn alive two suspected murderers, in response to which a police commander tried to condemn mob justice and the public’s unwilling- ness to give evidence against lynching suspects. The commander told them that, if found guilty of taking the law in their hands, they would be charged accordingly—i.e., with murder. He ad- monished them that they must learn to hand suspects over to the police.72 In June 2012, reader comments on a reported police warning to mobs expressed Kenyans’ frustration with a corrupt, ineffective, revolving-door system of criminal justice in which suspects turned in to the police are back on the streets in no time and continuing to commit crimes. One reader comment begins, “If am robbed today by a thug and, after his arrest and remand at the police station, I meet him on the streets robbing someone else in broad daylight and probably in the process of harming the victim, what am I expected to do—run to the police station and report to the same corrupt officers for action and leave it at that???”73 Analytically here, police and public are trading charges of what Rogers (2003) calls individual-blame and system-blame, respectively (2003:118-20), where the system-blame is Kenyan-national and thus at a different, lower-system level than that with which Goldstein (2005) charges American neoliberal foreign policy for Latin American lynchings.74 (Another response from the public, from a letter to the editor, expressed mock surprise at a certain lynching-related warning from a police commander. It is not easy, the writer said, for an unarmed public to arrest an armed gangster. “There is the grave risk that innocent people could be killed or injured in the process. That’s why armed and trained police officers shoot suspects,

GIAL Special Electronic Publications 2013 including street urchins plucking side mirrors in the streets. If police rarely arrest suspects, how possible is this for an unarmed public?”75) That Kenyans are able to lynch with relative impunity—without consistent, serious threat of arrest, prosecution, or punishment76—appears to me consistent with impunity long enjoyed by members of Kenya’s Government and police for crimes of a number of kinds.77 The U.S. De- partment of State’s 2012 Kenya country report on human rights practices noted the following in relation to one particularly outlandish case:

Impunity remained a serious problem, including for abuses committed in previous years. In January 2011 three police officers shot and killed three suspected car- jackers who already had surrendered. The incident occurred in the middle of a busy Nairobi highway in broad daylight; it was captured on camera and featured prominently in the media. The officers were suspended temporarily but subsequently reinstated, although the investigation into the incident continued at year’s end.78

That lynchings in Kenya are rarely punished by law appears to me due in part to Kenya’s Government, media, and people evidently not regarding lynchings by the public as killings or lawlessness of the same nature as killings or lawlessness committed by criminal suspects. Thus, a tough-on-crime presidential statement addressing a major insecurity problem can target terror- gang criminals who kill villagers while ignoring lynch mobs that kill as many or more in response; and a news article reporting both this insecurity and the Government’s response can fail to include at least eight persons lynched among “[t]he total number of people killed in Bungoma and Busia counties over the past three weeks.”79 Thus also, concerning nine criminal suspects reported killed in Nairobi over a two-day period in August 2013, six of them lynched by the public in attempted robberies, the headline of the article concerned has the police and lynch mobs together in the war against crime. Four of seven reader comments applaud the police—e.g., nyakwari’s “Let thieves be killed.” Two of the other three comments, however, read hypocrisy in the article’s reported warning to the public against killing criminal suspects by Nairobi police commander Benson Kibui—e.g., Polkot’s “Kibui is contradicting himself. The police do no[t] arrest suspects. They shoot dead on sight. They lead by example. The public is simply copy- ing.”80 Is there a greater risk of being arrested in Kenya for burning charcoal illegally than for burning a human person?81 Fifth, lynchings in Kenya have inequitable access to basic resources as one contributing cause. Land is reported or alleged with some frequency to be an issue behind certain lynchings, with many poor Kenyans lacking access to land for affordable urban residence or as a means of rural livelihood. Theft of public land by Kenya’s powerful has been a commonplace of the country’s history and has contributed to gross inequities.82 Poverty is reported, at least implicitly, as one of the reasons for lynchings in urban slums.83 Reported theft of drinking water in slums, while I have not yet seen it clearly alleged a reason for lynchings, may soon become so.84 In a follow-up article on a lynching I have described already—that by slum residents of a member of an eviction squad—the reporter described as follows the late Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai’s reaction: “She regretted the man’s death but added that the public would react violent- ly if the wealthy were allowed to take over their resources.”85

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In May 1998, while leader of the official opposition in Kenya’s Parliament, ex-president Mwai Kibaki may have witnessed a lynching in relation to inequitable access to land as a basic resource. The lynching occurred after armed raiders attacked and disrupted an inter-party peace meeting in Trans Nzoia, a district with land disputes stemming back to the colonial period’s es- tablishment of white farms. Where the disrupted peace meeting was concerned, a number of district community leaders were alleged to have “threatened not to allow the meeting to proceed, alleging the MPs were out to incite local residents into invading ADC [Agricultural Develop- ment Corporation] land.” But the Nation article reporting the lynching also said, “[The MPs who addressed the meeting before the disruption] complained that ADC farms were being allocated to outsiders instead of to squatters,” and “[t]hey proposed that a committee of MPs be set up to re- settle the landless.”86 Land rights are such a sensitive, volatile issue that people, especially strangers, found surveying or inspecting a contested piece of land risk being lynched by locals with any interest in it.87 Land-grabbing is included regularly in Kenya Human Rights Commission annual reports of human rights abuses in Kenya.88 Whether from crass greed for land or from desperately-felt need, desire to possess the land of a relatively weak, defenseless person is often alleged to be behind witch-allegation lynchings in both coastal and western Kenya.89 In just one example for western Kenya, there was a May 2008 incident in Kisii that saw at least eleven elderly alleged witches, most of them women, hacked and burned to death by a mob of about 500. With regard to the witch allegations, however, a Standard article reported some villagers as saying that the lynchings related rather to land disputes, and it quoted one local as follows: “These are gangs hired to kill old people so that their land can be inherited by neighbours. How come they only target old people?”90 For the coast, a charge is reported generally that the killings of many elderly people by groups of family members are not witch-related, as alleged, but rather about land. Thus, in a February 2013 article that reported at least 250 elderly people killed on witch suspicions from 2008 to 2012 in parts of Kilifi and Malindi districts, the chairman of a local cultural association is paraphrased to the effect that the issue is land, not anyone’s witchcraft. In this regard, he is quoted as saying, “When the Mzee has become old you find the youth pressuring him or her to give them land, and when they refuse, then they are called ‘witches’ so that they can be eliminated.”91 Sixth, lynchings in Kenya are a major human rights scandal. At base here is the judgment that lynchings in Kenya, as everywhere, violate human rights of the victims concerned. This judgment I make, not by my own personal or national-cultural abhorrence of lynching, but by reference to the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights (see Appendix 2).t The violators of the lynching victims’ rights are a number of Kenya’s people, on the one hand, by direct perpetration, various kinds of assistance, or even just silent acquiescence; but they include Kenya’s Government as well, by its failure to prevent some number of them,u its failure to prosecute and seriously punish more than very few of them, and its failure to make the fight t Appendix 2 contains the twelve articles or part articles of the Declaration that I see either clearly or arguably vio- lated by lynchings wherever they occur. Philosophically, I see a need for the Universal Declaration to be grounded adequately, not simply asserted, and I find adequate grounding for at least its core lynching-related articles in a Christian worldview and anthropology. u Where a government’s failure to prevent preventable lynchings is concerned, I believe a strong argument can be made that it is guilty of culpable neglect of the custodial responsibility it has for those subject to it. The kind of culpable neglect concerned is not a Western notion foreign to Africa; it is, rather, one that Douglas (1967) saw in Lele (southern Democratic Republic of Congo) blood debts (1967:241) and that I wrote about in McKee (1995) as of great importance in Meegye-Mangbetu (northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo) death compensations. 13

GIAL Special Electronic Publications 2013 against them any level of national priority. Then, above and beyond the rights-violation judgment is the judgment of a major scandal—which I grant is more subjective and which I therefore begin to explain in the remainder of the paper’s present section. I believe Ida B. Wells-Barnett, pioneer and wonderfully effective African-American anti- lynching crusader, was right to reproach turn-of-the-twentieth-century Christian America for its lynching record. America thought and proclaimed itself civilized; it was in fact, Wells-Barnett (2002) charged, especially by its lynching black Americans by burning them alive before large crowds,92 savage and barbaric, which were the other two adjectives of the day’s evolutionist trio.v

American Christianity heard of this awful affair [of five blacks lynched in Missis- sippi ca. September 1892, on suspicion of poisoning a well and perhaps causing one or more white deaths] and read of its details and neither press nor pulpit gave the matter more than a passing comment. Had it occurred in the wilds of interior Africa, there would have been an outcry from the humane people of this country against the savagery which would so mercilessly put men and women to death. But it was an evidence of American civilization to be passed by unnoticed, to be denied or condoned as the requirements of any future emergency might determine (2002:99 [‘A red record,’ 1895], italics added).

Not only has life been taken by mobs in the last twenty years, but the ordinary procedure of hanging and shooting [has] been improved upon during the past ten years. Fifteen human beings have been burned to death in the different parts of the country by mobs. Men, women and children have gone to see the sight, and all have approved the barbarous deeds done in the high light of the civilization and Christianity of this country (2002:197 [‘Mob rule in New Orleans,’ 1900], italics added).

Yet, if it is true that America had a huge, deeply shameful problem with lynchings in the 1880s, 1890s, and beyond—Tolnay & Beck (1995) use phrases like “this carnage,” “the truly incredible level of slaughter,” “a frenzy of lynching,” and “that avalanche of post-Reconstruction violence” to characterize Southern lynchings from 1882 through 1930 (1995:ix, 2, 3, 4, respectively); Samuel Clemens (1923), reacting to a 1901 multiple lynching near Pierce City, south- western Missouri, after America’s worst decade of reported lynching history and alluding to exact knowledge of annual U.S. figures no higher than about 115, yet branded America “the United States of Lyncherdom” and pleaded sarcastically with the country’s missionaries to China to come home and convert its Christian lynch mobs—what kind of problem does modern Kenya have, and is it being responded to as it deserves by Kenya’s Government, its people, its press, the U.S., the UN, and the rest of the international community? Starting with Kenya’s Government, ending with its people, and holding its press until the paper’s conclusion: I have already noted a number of things, especially with regard to the paper’s fourth assertion, that testify to what I see as the Kenya Government’s effective indifference to Kenya’s lynching problem, which I do not believe they consider a major scandal—or even a significant v See Wells-Barnett (2002) passim; and see Morgan (1877) for a good example of late-nineteenth-century anthropology’s evolutionist-progressivist use of the three terms savagery, barbarism, and civilization. 14

GIAL Special Electronic Publications 2013 part of the country’s problem with lawlessness and insecurity.93 Kenya’s Government, for all who know Kenya, is used to weathering mega-scandals. At the same time, its leaders allege it a God-fearing nation, though perhaps unmindful as they do so that it was America’s God-fearing South that lynched so many black Americans.94 Until a tipping-point combination of foreign aid donors, foreign investors, foreign tourists, national and international public opinion, competent courts of law, and a majority of Kenyan voters hold the Government responsible for its share of Kenya’s lynching problem,w I do not believe the Government will care about it—not in the main or effectively.x In any case: As long as there continue to be more than a relative handful of lynchings per year,95 I believe Kenya will be judged by many, where a state’s monopoly of the right to use force is concerned, a significantly failed state. Concerning the UN, I limit myself to three related remarks and an opinion. First, I have never seen Kenya’s overall lynching record the subject of any UN comment, nor have I heard it among the negatives the UN cites now and again for which it might see itself obligated to move its United Nations Office in Nairobi to another country. (This Nairobi office is the UN headquar- ters in Africa and the third largest UN presence in the world.) Second, the UN criticized Papua New Guinea recently with regard to “extra-judicial killings linked to accusations of sorcery”96— i.e., to lynchings of the kind that occur annually in Kenya with disturbing frequency. Third, the UN criticized Kenya recently (1) by identifying Kenya among the world’s eight worst offenders in the illegal ivory trade—a trade noted as threatening both the animals concerned and the people whose livelihoods depend on tourism;97 (2) by condemning and expressing concern over ten killings and more than 100 seriously injured from reported “insecurity” in Bungoma and Busia counties, and by urging the Government to act promptly and appropriately to stem the insecurity in keeping with applicable standards for the protection of civilians and respect for human rights;98 and (3) during Kenya’s mid-May 2013 appearance before the United Nations Commit- tee Against Torture, where the committee took Kenya to task over “its commitment to imple- menting reforms to address various forms of torture,” including “[mob-lynch] burning of suspected witches in Kisii.”99 However, I am not aware of the UN having criticized Kenya with regard to what were reported as at least eight (but perhaps as many as or more than eighteen?) lynchings in response to the Bungoma-Busia insecurity, or to Deputy President William Ruto’s shoot-to-kill order as part of the Government’s response to that insecurity,100 or (again) to Ken- ya’s overall lynching record. (See an earlier reference to the same “insecurity,” ten killings, and at least eight lynchings in the last paragraph of the section on the fourth assertion.) Even if I have missed one or more minor UN statements to Kenya on this human rights topic, the UN, clearly, could do much more than it has been doing to try to end lynchings in Kenya. It might, for exam- w By such measures available and appropriate to each—e.g., by aid cuts, embargoes, boycotts, public shaming, vot- ing out of office, legal convictions and punishments. If Kenya wanted seriously to stop lynchings, it might, apart from arrest, prosecution, and judicial punishment of all perpetrators and abettors (which might in fact prove relatively difficult), fine constituencies a significant sum for each lynching that occurred within their respective boundaries, fine their respective MPs as well, and make the constituencies indemnify the families of the lynching victims concerned (see White 1969:196-226 concerning something of America’s experience of attempting to end lynchings by such and similar measures). x I acknowledge exceptions to the rule of Government indifference and am heartened by them—e.g., the police chief who, after police had rescued an alleged rabbit thief from a lynching in process, argued not just the standard line that it was illegal for the residents to take the law into their hands to punish the suspect, but also that the suspect’s life was more valuable than the rabbits (‘Suspected Runyenjes rabbit thief beaten up,’ Star, 7 Sep 2012, by Reuben Githinji, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-3146/suspected-runyenjes-rabbit-thief-beaten, accessed 25 Feb 2013). And my media data include more than just a handful of cases of police officers, district officers, and other Government agents reported to have successfully intervened to prevent lynchings. 15

GIAL Special Electronic Publications 2013 ple, press Kenya’s Government to enact anti-torture legislation broad enough to prosecute and punish all responsible for each of the country’s lynchings.101 Concerning the U.S. (my own country), I have two related remarks and an opinion. First, Goldstein (2005) has the U.S. contributing to the high numbers of lynchings in Bolivia, Latin America, and elsewhere throughout the so-called underdeveloped world. (Goldstein did his anthropology dissertation research in Bolivia.) Goldstein concludes,

Bolivian society, like that of many countries hemisphere-wide, is rife with violence, of which lynching is only the most recent variety. Rather than an antiquated practice or an expression of innate savagery, lynching today is a fully modern response to problems of insecurity created by mounting poverty, rising crime, corruption, and the failure of official justice. The role of the United States in creating this situation [by its neoliberal and other foreign policy] deserves evaluation now before another Senate apology [in addition to that of June 13, 2005 to America’s lynching victims and their families], this time to Bolivian and other Latin Ameri- can victims of lynching violence, becomes necessary.102

Second, the U.S. Department of State today, in countries like Kenya, appears far more concerned with what its country reports on human rights practices categorize as abuses, discrimination, and violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity than it appears to be with lynchings. It is the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Trade Act of 1974, each as amended since initial passage, that require the State Department to submit these reports to Congress for all countries that receive U.S. aid and all UN member states. Although the Kenya country reports for 2011 and 2012 do not allege a single death by any act related to sexual orientation or gender identity, this subject gets significantly more space than do lynchings, even when the 543 “mob justice” killings of the Kenya Police’s 2011 crime report are, per capita, more than three-and-a-half times greater than the 230 of the worst year of recorded U.S. lynching history and though the number of lynchings for 2012 may well have been greater still (see Appendix 3 and Appendix 4).y Also in 2011 and 2012, the U.S. government threatened to cut foreign aid to African countries moving to enact anti-gay legislation;103 it did not, to the best of my knowledge, do anything remotely similar to Kenya or any other country over an unspeakably outrageous lynching record.104 The U.S. government’s treatment of the issues concerned here is obscenely disproportionate, especially given that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights asserts numerous rights clearly vio- lated by lynchings, but nowhere asserts any rights clearly concerned with sexual orientation or gender identity. (Whatever one’s views on and whatever the logic or positioned morality of gay rights, the U.S. government’s threat to Uganda and others over anti-gay legislation is part of the current Democratic administration’s agenda for American civil rights; it is not based on any obvious-to-all-reasonable-people interpretation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.) 105 Why Congress has not reacted to the high number of Kenya’s 2011 and 2012 lynchings with at y In the 2011 country report, the zero killings based on either sexual orientation or gender identity get more than fifty percent (50%) more space than do what the Kenya Police reported later that year to be 543 mob justice killings, with the comparative word and line counts 318 to 206 and 38 to 23, respectively. The per capita comparison is based on population estimates of 41 million for Kenya for 2011 and 64 million for the U.S. for 1892. For what it is worth: Based on an estimate of 26.3 million for Kenya for 1993, the 508 lynchings reported in that year’s U.S. Department of State Kenya country report on human rights practices give a per capita figure more than five times that of the U.S. for 1892. That the number of Kenyan lynchings in 2012 may well have been greater than that in 2011 is based on the fact that I have reports of a good number more lynchings in my 2012 media data than I do in my 2011 data. 16

GIAL Special Electronic Publications 2013 least some measure of foreign aid cut, I find incredibly scandalous, given the attack on human rights and dignity of even a far smaller number of such brutal mob murders. May the U.S. government be quicker to correct its effective lack of concern for Kenya’s lynching victims and their families than was the U.S. Senate to apologize to America’s lynching victims and their families for failure to even attempt to act against American lynchings. Concerning the rest of the international community, I will say only and quickly three things. First, the European Union appears more concerned about Kenya’s legal death penalty— by hanging and not exercised since 1987—than it is about Kenya’s lynchings.106 Second, organizations of which I would expect at least an historical pan-African concern for black lynchings (e.g., the U.S.’s National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the African Union), and even the international human rights community on the whole, appear to me ignorant of, effectively indifferent to, or inexplicably muted in their responses to Kenya’s lynchings. Third, and on a positive note, recent European scholarship is contributing greatly to the recognition of lynching as a serious, ongoing international problem rather than just one of American history.107 Last but by no means least, concerning Kenya’s people, I see media evidence that some, rather than addressing their country’s lynching problem as it deserves, are rather maintaining, even augmenting, the magnitude of its scandal; at the same time, I see evidence of others working to stop the lynchings. Among the former are, those who directly perpetrate lynchings; others who abet the perpetrators;108 spectators who make no attempt to interfere—some because fearful for their own lives, but others caught smiling by photographers or described by reporters as celebrating the mob’s handiwork;109 people who speak or write to the media defending or excusing lynchings;110 and yet others—perhaps the silent majority—apparently able to sit back, not get too upset, and be a nation that lynches petty thieves, re-elects jumbos, and demonstrates against the savage killing of wildlife.111 Among those working to stop the lynchings are, those who do attempt to interfere—sometimes at the cost of their lives;112 journalists, clergy, and other members of Kenyan civil society who speak to or write to or in the media decrying lynching;113 and, what is very encouraging to me, children who reportedly sometimes, somehow manage better than many adults either not to lynch or even to prevent a lynching.114 Seventh, lynchings in Kenya will, until they become the exception rather than the rule, hinder Kenya’s development in the twenty-first century. Ida Wells-Barnett saw lynchings in the American South of her day as indicative enough of general lawlessness that they would deter investment in the South: “What can you do, reader, to prevent lynching, to thwart anarchy and to promote law and order throughout our land? … Bring to the intelligent consideration of Southern people the refusal of capital to invest where lawlessness and mob violence hold sway.”115 Ken- ya’s economy, though robust for sub-Saharan Africa, likely cannot afford much in the way of boycotts and embargoes by the international community. Were foreign investment, foreign aid, and foreign tourism to dry up significantly until lynchings virtually stopped, and until any few that continued were regularly prosecuted and given serious judicial punishment, then Kenya’s economic development might even be seriously hindered in the meantime.116 For newly-elected President Uhuru Kenyatta to focus on wooing foreign investors and achieving double-digit economic growth while Kenya continues to burn—and stone, beat, hack, and otherwise lynch hun- dreds of human persons every year, with few if any presidential words on the subject117—should be enough to steer morally-responsible foreign aid agencies, investors, and tourists to countries of the world more respectful of the human rights of their own citizens.

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There are some media data, though perhaps few, that show conscious Kenyan awareness that lynchings as a part of general insecurity either do or are liable to scare away investors from areas where they occur.118 In this regard, general insecurity in a nation of thieves (recalling Makau Mutua’s phrase) that lynches thieves regularly (not to mention alleged witches and others), regarding them as vermin to be exterminated rather than as human persons (this is indeed the view of at least some Kenyans who support mob justice killings),119 is hardly an atmosphere conducive to business investment with a conscience. It is impossible, in this paper, to begin to consider what effects lynchings in Kenya and their various concomitants have on the Kenyan workforce. That said, it is difficult not to see one of these concomitants—witchcraft ideas and practices that have witchcraft with both ontological- ly lethal power and a leveling function—doing other than hindering Kenya from achieving its economic development goals. As Peter Mwaura has written,

In a witchcraft culture [like Kenya’s as opposed to a science culture] people, both educated and uneducated, wear good-luck charms and amulets to protect themselves and to attain good health, riches and prosperity. They visit witchdoctors looking for miracle cures and solutions for their personal problems and economic problems and ambitions. They look for magic, not science or technology. Instead of working hard to improve their lot in life, they prefer to hunt down suspected witches who they blame for their misfortunes, lynch them and burn their hous- es.120

On the non-economic side of development, it is difficult to assess what continuing coars- ening of Kenyans’ moral sensibilities there may be as a function of their continuing to lynch. While America was still lynching, Frederick Douglass wrote the following to Ida Wells:

If the American conscience were only half alive, if the American church and clergy were only half Christianized, if American moral sensibility were not hardened by persistent infliction of outrage and crime against colored people, a scream of horror, shame, and indignation would arise to heaven wherever your pamphlet shall be read. But alas! even crime has power to reproduce itself and create condi- tions favorable to its own existence.121

For Kenyan lynchings, I can imagine such reproductive, creative power in a recent photo-with- caption that reported the lynching by burning of a suspected thief at Nakuru. In the photo’s background, two men loiter against a wall, another walks away, some boys appear to be at play; in the foreground, a young woman steps nimbly over part of the lynching victim’s ashes and other remains.122 What I believe sure is, that as long as Kenyans continue to lynch, Kenya will be charged by many throughout the world as lacking civilization in the sense that America lacked it as charged by Ida Wells-Barnett; what I believe sure is, Kenya will become known international- ly as a nation of lynchers with much better reason than Clemens (1923) was sure that his home state of Missouri would become such at the turn of the twentieth century:

And so Missouri has fallen, that great state! Certain of her children have joined the lynchers, and the smirch is upon the rest of us. That handful of her children have given us a character and labeled us with a name, and to the dwellers in the

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four quarters of the earth we are “lynchers,” now, and ever shall be. For the world will not stop and think—it never does, it is not its way; its way is to generalize from a single sample. It will not say, “Those Missourians have been busy eighty years in building an honorable good name for themselves; these hundred lynchers down in the corner of the state are not real Missourians, they are renegades.” No, the truth will not enter its mind; it will generalize from the one or two misleading samples and say, “The Missourians are lynchers” (1923:239).

A robust economy is one thing; development of the spirit—of the type that issues in more equi- table distribution of basic resources and few if any lynchings—is quite another. Security and eq- uitable economic growth?—Yes, Kenya certainly needs both; but not at the price of continuing to degrade and lose its national soul by lynchings and their concomitants.

3. Conclusion

Media reports of lynchings continue unabated through August 2013—e.g., a member of a robber gang burned to death with some of the gasoline with which his gang had been threatening its victims; a 35-year-old man stoned and clubbed to death in “zero tolerance” of his alleged theft of three dozen teaspoons; the chief accountant at Kenya’s Department of Defence lynched with two others in an apparent case of mistaken identity.123 A two-sentence Star article of August 19, headlined ‘Mob justice killings on the rise,’ reports that “[a]bout 335 people have been killed over the past seven months through mob justice killings,” but has Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo commenting only that “they will implement changes to laws on bail for suspects to improve public safety.”124 If this 335 figure is for January-July and 2013 lynchings continue at the same rate for the rest of the year, there will be about 577 lynchings in 2013, or about 1.58 persons lynched per day. In this light, I conclude with a suggestion regarding shame for lynchings, then also with both a commendation and a challenge to Kenya’s press about reporting them. ‘We must organize a national day of shame’ is the title of a 2012 Nation opinion piece by Father Gabriel Dolan, a Roman Catholic missionary to Kenya. As Dolan sees it, lack of due priority on the safety of Kenyans—shameful lack of respect for Kenyan lives—has led to too many needless deaths by such culpable acts (including ones of neglect) as improper aircraft mainte- nance, substandard building construction, failure to enforce or respect road safety rules, lynchings, and the normalization of election violence.125 As best I know, through the end of August 2013, Kenya has not responded to Dolan’s call with a national day of shame for any of these. Whether or not such a day is indeed part of the solution to the problem of Kenya’s lynchings, I believe that, until Kenyans know deep personal and national shame for their country’s lynchings, there is probably still, as a certain Nation article expressed more than five years ago, “no end in sight to the lynching.”126 I commend Kenya’s press, as represented especially by the Nation, Standard, and Star, for reporting and editorializing against lynchings.127 These are indeed a sensitive subject,128 I do not know what off-and-on pressures there may have been through the years against reporting them, and I could not have written more than a fraction of the present paper without this Kenyan reporting. Also, if Wells-Barnett (2002) is to be believed on the subject, “The people must know before they can act, and there is no educator to compare with the press” (2002:52). If Kenya does at some point stop lynching, the country’s press will likely have played a great role in this victo- ry for Kenyans’ human rights.

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At the same time, I challenge Kenya’s press to do ever better, for the human dignity of all Kenyans. Nowhere in the world, including the West, do self-centered, self-serving people, in or outside government, not need the press to hold their feet to the fire over the rights of the poor, the weak, and the defenseless (including the criminal poor). Do report all lynchings of which you become aware, but never again, please, in any version of your papers, report the lynching of a human person as a mere brief or photo-with-caption129—not even if you lack most of the story’s details. Recognize that, in the broadest humanistic sense of the Rebel’s words in Aimé Césaire’s (1958) Et les chiens se taisaient, “In the whole world no poor devil is lynched, no wretch is tor- tured, in whom I am not degraded and murdered” (1958:70).z Agree belatedly, concerning Ken- ya, with U.S. Congressman John Lewis (2010) of Georgia, that, “We must prevent anything like this from ever happening again” (2010:7). At the very least, by way of concrete action, create a front-page, Kenyan-newspaper equivalent of the black banner that cried for a time from the win- dow of the NAACP’s New York offices at each fresh American lynching outrage, “A man [i.e., a human person] was lynched yesterday.”

z The English translation of this Césaire quote is widely-published without attribution. The French original is, « Il n’y a pas dans le monde un pauvre type lynché, un pauvre homme torturé, en qui je ne sois assassiné et humilié. » 20

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Appendix 1

April-August 2013 news pieces that report, on average, over 1.2 lynched persons per day

Recorded lynchings of blacks [in the United States] had decreased in the first years of the new century, from 105 in 1901 to 57 in 1905, but at an average of more than one a week [75.4/year for 1900-1919 = 1.45/week] the practice remained an unwelcome fixture of American life (Dray 2002:143).

Date of piece Media source Title of piece Number of persons Alleged crime(s) Reported meth- reported or sus- of the victims od(s) of lynching pected lynched

2 Apr 2013 Star Residents blame 1 shopbreaking beat cops for Limuru insecurity http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-114914/residents-blame-cops-limuru-insecurity

3 Apr 2013 Nation Digital, 11 Lynching victim’s 1 possession of sto- stoned body under pile of len good; thus stones also, mugging, robbery, homicide (“found with a handset belonging to a man who was mugged and later died in hospital”)

3 Apr 2013 Star Thug was lynched 1 attempted robbery N/R in Ongata Rongai http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-115160/thug-was-lynched-ongata-rongai

5 Apr 2013 Star Mob lynches iron 1 theft stoned sheets thief http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-115454/mob-lynches-iron-sheets-thief

5 Apr 2013 Star Supermarket rob- 1 attempted shop- beat ber lynched in breaking Ngong http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-115442/supermarket-robber-lynched-ngong

7 Apr 2013 Star Kayole residents 3 attempted robbery stoned lynch thugs http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-115617/kayole-residents-lynch-thugs

8 Apr 2013 Star Man lynched in 1 adultery (“having beat love triangle an affair with a married woman”) http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-115717/man-lynched-love-triangle

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8 Apr 2013 Nation Digital, 16 Sisters accused of 2 murder by witch- “gang-raped then witchcraft lynched craft lynched … sus- tained deep cuts on their heads”

10 Apr 2013 Star Two people were 1 attempted robbery N/R killed in Nairobi http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-116111/two-people-were-killed-nairobi

11 Apr 2013 Star Mob lynches Nan- 1 murder stoned di dad who killed his two sons http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-116221/mob-lynches-nandi-dad-who-killed-his-two-sons

12 Apr 2013 Star Mob lynches sus- 1 theft burned pected thief http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-116398/mob-lynches-suspected-thief

13 Apr 2013 Nation Digital, 10 Two lynched over 2 members of terror N/R spate of robberies gang, robbery

15 Apr 2013 Star Mbeere phone 1 robbery, attempted stoned thief lynched rape http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-116646/mbeere-phone-thief-lynched

16 Apr 2013 Star Man lynched for 1 bestiality N/R bestiality http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-116834/man-lynched-bestiality

16 Apr 2013 Star Three held for 1 none? theft by N/R lynching woman N.B: The aptness legal means? (see in Mwingi of ‘lynching’ is note at left) questionable here: the victim is reported to have been killed because she attempted to serve court papers in a family land dispute. http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-116841/three-held-lynching-woman-mwingi

18 Apr 2013 Star Suspected gang- 1 attempted robbery N/R ster killed in Mombasa http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-117316/suspected-gangster-killed-mombasa

19 Apr 2013 Nation Digital, 32 Gangster lynched 1 attempted robbery beat; body set in botched robbery ablaze

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22 Apr 2013 Star Four arrested over 2 murder stoned (1) [not killing of college reported (1)] students http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-117761/four-arrested-over-killing-college-students, http://www.the- star.co.ke/news/article-117618/two-students-killed-eldoret; but see also, from two months later, http://www.the- star.co.ke/news/article-129143/1000-street-people-flushed-out-eldoret-cbd-swoop

22 Apr 2013 Star Ruto donates 1 robbery; behind a “roughed up” Sh1million for criminal cartel AIC’s prayer centre http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-117646/ruto-donates-sh1million-aics-prayer-centre

22 Apr 2013 Nation Digital, 16 Vigilante group 2 robbery beat (1); slashed, kills two suspects clobbered (1) in raid

24 Apr 2013 Star Man slashes 1 murder beat; body set brother to death in ablaze Kirinyaga row http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-118018/man-slashes-brother-death-kirinyaga-row

25 Apr 2013 Star Locals lynch two 2 robbery beat robbers http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-118246/locals-lynch-two-robbers

27 Apr 2013 Nation Digital, 10 Villagers lynch 1 theft, sale of stolen N/R man for stealing property and selling cow

27 Apr 2013 Star Suspected burglar 1 shopbreaking, slashed with ma- killed by Busia attempted robbery chetes mob attack http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-118573/suspected-burglar-killed-busia-mob-attack

29 Apr 2013 Standard Thugs attack three 2 multiple assaults stoned (1); beat, villages, injure etc. (1) 125 http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/m/story.php?id=2000082598&pageNo=1; see also ‘Gangsters killed after village attack,’ Nation Digital, 29 Apr 2013, 18

29 Apr 2013 Nation Digital, 18 Man lynched for 1 theft N/R theft of chickens

1 May 2013 Nation Digital, 9 Residents lynch 2 attempted shop- stoned, clobbered armed robbers breaking with rungus

2 May 2013 Star Robber killed by 1 robbery burned city mob http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-118883/robber-killed-city-mob

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3 May 2013 Star Two people killed 1 robbery, murder N/R in robbery – Kise- rian http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-118998/two-people-killed-robbery-kiserian

5 May 2013 Nation 6 killed in banditry 3 cross-border ban- N/R attack by suspect- ditry ed Tanzania mili- tia http://www.nation.co.ke/News/africa/-/1066/1842654/-/15dfssmz/-/index.html; ‘Loliondo families want bodies back,’ Tanzania Daily News, 22 May 2013, by Marc Nkwame, http://allafrica.com/stories/201305220330.html

6 May 2013 Star Kilifi villagers 1 theft N/R blame police http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-119237/kilifi-villagers-blame-police

7 May 2013 Star Murder suspect 1 murder beat, burned lynched in Rawa http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-119446/murder-suspect-lynched-rawa

7 May 2013 Nation 10 killed as mobs 10 various in eight beat (2), stoned mete out justice separate inci- (2), N/R (6) dents—e.g., robbery, theft, involvement in a crime http://www.nation.co.ke/News/10-killed-as-mobs-mete-out-justice/-/1056/1845634/-/wxyjdk/-/index.html

8 May 2013 Standard Mourners kill 1 adultery beat teacher over love affair with bishop’s wife http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000083213&story_title=mourners-kill-teacher-over-love-affair-with-bishop-s-wife

8 May 2013 Standard Residents’ concern 2 member of a ter- burned as insecurity esca- ror-robber gang; lates multiple assaults, theft http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000083249&story_title=residents-concern-as-insecurity-escalates; see also http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-119732/2-suspected-thieves-killed

9 May 2013 Star Imenti mob lynch 1 witchcraft N/R man http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-119702/imenti-mob-lynch-man

10 May 2013 Nation Digital, 19 Villagers stone 2 “behind a spate of stoned two robbers to robberies” death but see also, regarding the victims’ alleged crime(s), http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-119914/mob-lynches-two-buglars

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13 May 2013 Nation Suspect lynched 1 theft, murder beat; body set after attack on ablaze residents http://www.nation.co.ke/Counties/Suspect-lynched-after-attack-on-residents/-/1107872/1851078/-/1fl7p0/-/index.html, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-120059/bungoma-residents-lynch-suspected-thug

14 May 2013 Star Two suspected 2 theft N/R thieves killed http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-120289/two-suspected-thieves-killed

15 May 2013 Star Residents kill 8 in relation to a burned (2), N/R eight suspects spate of terror (6) gang attacks (in Bungoma & perhaps Busia as well—see above) http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-120428/residents-kill-eight-suspects;see also http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000083778&story_title=eight-lynched-over-bungoma-killings and ‘Woman linked to attack on trader lynched,’ Nation Digital, 17 May 2013, 5

16 May 2013 Star Residents kill 1 member of robber N/R suspect gang http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-120587/residents-kill-suspect

20 May 2013 Star Boda boda man 1 thug N/R lynched just before marriage http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-121034/boda-boda-man-lynched-just-marriage

23 May 2013 Star Crime roundup 1 attempted shop- N/R breaking http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-121417/crime-roundup

24 May 2013 Nation Digital, 20 Villagers lynch 2 attempted house- N/R two caught housebreaking breaking see also http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-121681/kisum-town-mob-lynch-two-suspects, where the lynchings reported by the Nation and Star appear to be the same ones

24 May 2013 Star Missing boy’s 1 theft N/R body found http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-121671/missing-boys-body-found

26 May 2013 Standard Late Court of Ap- 1 housebreaking stoned peal Judge’s son dies in a road accident http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000084515&story_title=late-court-of-appeal-judge-s-son-dies-in-a-road- accident&pageNo=1

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28 May 2013 Star Suspects serial 1 murder hacked Killer murdered in Mwatate http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-122047/suspects-serial-killer-murdered-mwatate

28 May 2013 Nation Boda boda motor- 2 murder, robbery; stoned cyclists killed in gang members crime wave http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/1865542/-/w4lhcxz/-/index.html; but see also, concerning what may or not be the same lynchings, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-122406/stop-mob-justice-dc-tells-mwingi-residents

30 May 2013 Nation Digital, 20 Man kills brother 1 member of theft “beat him up and as mob lynches gang set his body on suspect fire”

30 May 2013 Star Suspected witch- 1 witchcraft throat slit doctor found dead N.B.: The local outside Ganze bar DO is reported as saying the victim “may have been killed on witchcraft allegations” and “cautioned the public against taking the law into their hands.” http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-122414/suspected-witchdoctor-found-dead-outside-ganze-bar

30 May 2013 Star Suspected thug is 1 attempted robbery N/R lynched in Ruai http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-122358/suspected-thug-lynched-ruai

31 May 2013 Nation Robbery suspect 1 N/R? beat cheats death in N.B.: “Police sus- hospital attack pect [the deceased] was beaten to death by a mob.” http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Robbery-suspect-cheats-death-in-hospital-attack-/-/1056/1867620/-/gnp6stz/-/index.html

31 May 2013 Nation Digital, 18 Villagers lynch 1 member of robber hacked; hanged man linked to gang victim’s body on a robberies tree

31 May 2013 Nation Residents lynch 3 armed gang mem- beat; burned bod- three gunmen bers ies (or burned?) http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/1868914/-/w4jbc7z/-/index.html; see also, from 1 Jun 2013 and 13 Jun 2013, respectively, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-122683/three-thugs-lynched-guns-seized-kitale and http://www.the- star.co.ke/news/article-124167/arms-ug-says-cops-chief

2 Jun 2013 Nation Digital, 52 Five killed as ban- 1 robbery N/R dits raid village

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3 Jun 2013 Star Robber lynched in 1 attempted robbery burned Embu http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-122797/robber-lynched-embu

4 Jun 2013 Nation Digital, 6 Residents lynch 1 robbery beat, burned suspected mugger

4 Jun 2013 Nation Digital, 11 Suspect lynched as 1 housebreaking slashed raid at pastor’s fails

4 Jun 2013 Star Child killed in 1 burglar N/R Gatanga fire http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-122990/child-killed-gatanga-fire

4 Jun 2013 Star Lynching rampant 1 robbery, murder beat, burned in Migori http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-123017/lynching-rampant-migori

4 Jun 2013 Standard Man lynched for 1 theft stoned, beat stealing spoons http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/entertainment/pulse/77/crazy-world/509/man-lynched-for-stealing-spoons

5 Jun 2013 Nation Digital, 6 Tanzanian lynched 1 robbery, murder N/R over rider’s killing

6 Jun 2013 Star Thief lynched by 1 robbery knocked from tree, Embu residents burned http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-123306/thief-lynched-embu-residents

10 Jun 2013 Nation Digital, 19 Two cattle thieves 2 theft N/R killed by mob

11 Jun 2013 Nation Digital, 16 ‘Notorious’ robber 1 “notorious robber” beat lynched by villagers

11 Jun 2013 Nation Digital, 20 Man lynched for 1 rape (also assault?) beat rape of pregnant woman

12 Jun 2013 Nation Digital, 20 Residents lynch 1 theft beat man in coffee theft drama see also http://www.nation.co.ke/Counties/Thugs-raid-coffee-factory/-/1107872/1888184/-/14x3i2t/-/index.html

12 Jun 2013 Star Police chief ig- 1 assault N/R nores alarm http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-124013/police-chief-ignores-alarm

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13 Jun 2013 Star Crime roundup 1 attempted robbery N/R http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-124090/crime-round

13 Jun 2013 Nation Digital, 11 Villagers lynches 2 attempted robbery N/R two violent robbers [sic]

14 Jun 2013 Star Robbers lynched 3 housebreaking, burned in Kirinyaga attempted robbery http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-124309/robbers-lynched-kirinyaga

20 Jun 2013 Star Residents kill 1 attempted theft burned suspected thief http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-125040/residents-kill-suspected-thief

20 Jun 2013 Star Migori police fight 3 attempted theft— beat, burned (2); mob justice viz., refusal to pay burned (1) for a Sh30 meal— & destruction of property—viz., burned down the house of the ven- dor concerned; theft; attempted theft http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-125054/migori-police-fight-mob-justice

20 Jun 2013 Star Residents warned 1 witchcraft N/R over witchcraft http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-125000/residents-warned-over-witchcraft

21 Jun 2013 Standard Bungoma families 10 assault, murder N/R fear killer gangs could strike back N.B.: These are with vengeance ones not reported elsewhere? (See May 2013 lynchings that responded to attacks on villages in Busia and Bungoma.) http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000086517&story_title=bungoma-families-fear-killer-gangs-could-strike-back- with-vengeance&pageNo=1

24 Jun 2013 Standard ‘Witchdoctor’ 1 witchcraft, murder beat, burned, bur- buried alive over ied alive son’s death http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/entertainment/pulse/77/crazy-world/719/witchdoctor-buried-alive-over-sons-death

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25 Jun 2013 Nation Digital, 10 Man lynched in 1 assault N/R boda boda rider stab claim

see also http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-125601/motorbike-thief-lynched

25 Jun 2013 Star Man dies escaping 1 theft beat, burned crazed Embu mob http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-125548/man-dies-escaping-crazed-embu-mob

26 Jun 2013 Star Armed robbers 2 robbery stoned killed in Samia http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-125753/armed-robbers-killed-samia

28 Jun 2013 Nation Digital, 20 Mob lynches man 1 gang member, assault with “all linked to theft assault, robbery manner of weap- gang ons,” burned see also both http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000086915&story_title=chicken-thief-sentenced-to-one-year- imprisonment and http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-126050/suspect-pulled-out-embu-matatu-lynched

28 Jun 2013 Star Local kill suspect- 1 theft N/R ed thief [sic] http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-126079/local-kill-suspected-thief

29 Jun 2013 Standard Mob burns to 2 theft burned (2) death University 2 over laptop theft http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000087093&story_title=mob-burns-to-death-university-2-over-laptop-theft

29 Jun 2013 Nation Four killed in 5 gang members, N/R (5) renewed Mandera housebreaking fighting http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/1899418/-/w2o499z/-/index.html; see also http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000087230&story_title=Kenya- Kenya:%20Seven%20gangsters%20killed%20in%20separate%20incidents

1 Jul 2013 Star Two lynched in 2 theft beat, burned (1); Kilifi over live- N/R (1) stock theft http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-126329/two-lynched-kilifi-over-livestock-theft

2 Jul 2013 Star Suspected thief 1 attempted theft stoned stoned to death http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-126526/suspected-thief-stoned-death; concerning which lynched person, see also http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-126691/villagers-fear-thiefs-spirit

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4 Jul 2013 Nation Gangsters kill 12 3 assault, murder beat (lit., “clob- in night raid on bered”), perhaps village burned (3) http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Gangsters-kill-12-in-night-raid-on-village-/-/1056/1905316/-/llwvp7z/-/index.html; see also http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000087510&story_title=village-in-shock-after-gang-descends-on-homes-and-kills-12-in- cold-blood, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-126995/raiders-kill-15-mwingi-over-family-land-dispute, http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000087655&story_title=revenge-as-youth-lynch-wife-gang-leader-s-mother, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-127233/hunt-down-killers-musila-tells-irate-locals

5 Jul 2013 Nation Digital, 11 Police probe death 1 attempted theft N/R of boda boda op- N.B.: This appears erator to be a lynching, though the article withholds judgment pending investigation.

6 Jul 2013 Nation Residents lynch 3 mother and wife of burned (2); N/R killer’s wife and a murderer, feast- (1) mother ing while the murderer’s dozen victims were being mourned; gangster http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Residents-lynch-killers-wife-and-mother/-/1056/1906314/-/lqhtg5z/-/index.html; http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000087655&story_title=revenge-as-youth-lynch-wife-gang-leader-s-mother, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-127145/mp-promises-sh100000-finder-mwingi-killer, http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000087750&story_title=he-threatened-to-kill-us-over-land-brother-to-gang-leader- says&pageNo=1

9 Jul 2013 Standard Mob lynch thief, 1 theft stoned tie stolen sheep on his body http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000087942&story_title=Kenya-mob-lynch-thief-tie-stolen-sheep-on-his-body

12 Jul 2013 Star Mob kills three in 3 thieves, “known N/R Muhoroni criminals who have been terroris- ing the community” http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-127907/mob-kills-three-muhoroni, see also http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/ktn/video/watch/2000067622/-four-suspects-lynched-in-muhoroni

15 Jul 2013 Nation Digital, 19 Villagers burn 1 murder burned man to death over wife’s killing

15 Jul 2013 Star Mob kills suspect 1 homicide N/R http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-128102/mob-kills-suspect

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16 Jul 2013 Nation Digital, 20 Boy lynched in 1 trespassing beat raid on girls’ N.B.: The murder school concerned may have been committed by the school’s principal and two watchmen rather than a mob of villagers, and thus it will not be classed a lynching by police? see also http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-128664/tragic-end-boy-caught-girls-dorm

16 Jul 2013 Star Provide proof, 1 criminal suspect N/R public told bonded by a court to keep peace for one year http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-128308/provide-proof-public-told

18 Jul 2013 Star Matatu tout killed, 1 robbery, assault beat, burned robber lynched in (that resulted in a Machakos town death) http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-128562/matatu-tout-killed-robber-lynched-machakos-town

19 Jul 2013 Star Man dies after 1 theft assault with crude mob beating weapons http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-128715/man-dies-after-mob-beating

21 Jul 2013 Star Suspected goat 1 theft beat thief lynched http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-128849/suspected-goat-thief-lynched

23 Jul 2013 Star Mob justice is N/R N/R N/R unlawful, says top cop http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-129165/mob-justice-unlawful-says-top-cop; see also, for just three Muhoroni lynchings clearly reported elsewhere in the present figure’s data, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-127907/mob-kills-three-muhoroni

23 Jul 2013 Standard Mob lynches sus- 1 conspiracy to beat pect for stealing commit theft from ‘boda boda’ operators http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000089154&story_title=mob-lynches-suspect-for-stealing-from-boda-boda- operators

26 Jul 2013 Nation Digital, 20 Mob lynches three 3 robbery, murder N/R linked to crime wave

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29 Jul 2013 Nation Body of missing 1 homicide N/R man found in river http://www.nation.co.ke/Counties/Body-of-missing-man-found-in-river/-/1107872/1930716/-/5io2g/-/index.html

30 Jul 2013 Nation Two killed as 1 robbery N/R police gun down five http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Police-gun-down-five-gangsters/-/1056/1932276/-/10jrw7l/-/index.html

2 Aug 2013 Nation Police issue warn- 3 robbery beat ing as 20 youth are shot dead http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Police-issue-warning-as--20-youth-are-shot-dead/-/1056/1935404/-/cpog65/-/index.html

2 Aug 2013 Nation Missing girl's 2 rape (1); gang N/R body found member, robbery dumped in thicket (1) http://www.nation.co.ke/Counties/Missing-girls-body-found-dumped-in-thicket-/-/1107872/1934802/-/60421qz/-/index.html; concerning the rape-related lynching, see also http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-131130/villagers-kill-rapist-after-he- confesses

2 Aug 2013 Star Mob killings rise 1 behind a series of N/R in Oyugis killings http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-130553/mob-killings-rise-oyugis

3 Aug 2013 Star Two thugs lynched 2 attempted robbery beat in Mbeere South district http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-130661/two-thugs-lynched-mbeere-south-district

8 Aug 2013 Standard Managers of a 1 robbery N/R Nairobi company thwart robbery attempt, kill gangsters http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000090432&story_title=managers-thwart-robbery-attempt-kill-gangsters

9 Aug 2013 Star Aunt defends 2 theft beat lynched boys http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-131330/aunt-defends-lynched-boys

10 Aug 2013 Star Transformer thief 1 theft N/R lynched http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-131491/transformer-thief-lynched

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12 Aug 2013 Nation Police, public kill 4 attempted robbery beat (1); N/R (3) nine in crime war N.B.: The article (3); theft (1) reports six lynched but only provides any detail concerning four. http://www.nation.co.ke/Counties/Police+public+kill+nine+in+crime+war/-/1107872/1945908/-/1hj898z/-/index.html; see also both http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/m/story.php?articleID=2000090789&story_title=Police-alarmed-by-increasing-cases-of- mob-justice and http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-131710/suspected-thug-lynched-mob

12 Aug 2013 Standard Mob lynch sus- 1 theft, gang mem- N/R pected thief in ber Taita-Taveta http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000090800&story_title=mob-lynch-suspected-thief

12 Aug 2013 Star Residents burn 1 theft beat, burned theft suspect http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-131582/residents-burn-theft-suspect

14 Aug 2013 KTN Newsdesk Suspected thief 1 robbery beat, burned lynched in Nakuru http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/ktn/video/watch/2000068824/-suspected-thief-lynched-in-nakuru

14 Aug 2013 KTN Prime Twins lynched in 1 member of a rob- N/R Kayole, Nairobi N.B.: The other ber gang twin was reported critically wound- ed. http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/ktn/video/watch/2000068808/-twins-lynched-in-kayole-nairobi

14 Aug 2013 Nation Fighting off police 1 attempted robbery stoned to get to criminals http://www.nation.co.ke/counties/Fighting+off+police+to+get+to+criminals/-/1107872/1952524/-/8lp0qpz/-/index.html

14 Aug 2013 Nation Mob kills military 3 beat; bodies man in a case of burned mistaken identity http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Mob-burns-three-men--by-mistake/-/1056/1948554/-/6ai3ls/-/index.html, but see also http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-132298/migori-police-probe-lynching-dod-worker

16 Aug 2013 Nation Digital, 11 Suspected cattle 1 theft burned thief set on fire

20 Aug 2013 Star Two Bungoma 2 brandishing a fire- beat (1); stoned (1) murder suspects arm, murder; ter- lynched ror gang activity, murder http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-132714/two-bungoma-murder-suspects-lynched

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21 Aug 2013 Nation Digital, Suspect set ablaze 1 attempted theft burned 6—photo by Jim- son Ndung’u, with caption

26 Aug 2013 Star Boda bodas lynch 1 theft stoned, beat Limuru bike thief http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-133474/boda-bodas-lynch-limuru-bike-thief

26 Aug 2013 Star Suspect on police 1 shopbreaking (at- N/R radar tempted robbery as well?) http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-133501/suspect-police-radar

26 Aug 2013 Star AP killed by mob 1 assault (not homi- stoned after shooting dead cide) trader in Marakwet http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-133551/ap-killed-mob-after-shooting-dead-trader-marakwet; see also http://www.the- star.co.ke/news/article-133606/ap-killed-mob-after-shooting-trader, http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/m/story.php?articleID=2000091993&story_title=Mob-lynches-AP-after-he-shoots-student, ‘AP stoned to death after shooting waiter,’ Nation Digital, 28 Aug 2013, 19

27 Aug 2013 Nation Digital, 9 One killed as 1 attempted burglary beat guards thwart shop burglary

29 Aug 2013 Star Molo pair lynched 2 attempted theft N/R for cattle raid http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-133955/molo-pair-lynched-cattle-raid

31 Aug 2013 Star Nakuru wants 1 attempted theft N/R crime wave stemmed http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-134236/nakuru-wants-crime-wave-stemmed

N/R = not reported, whether distinctly from other reports or at all

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Appendix 2

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Relevant (or arguably relevant) articles

http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml

Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. Article 2: Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty. Article 3: Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. Article 5: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 6: Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 7: All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declara- tion and against any incitement to such discrimination. Article 8: Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts vio- lating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

Article 9: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Article 10: Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impar- tial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him. Article 11: (1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence. (2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed. Article 12: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or corre- spondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks. Article 22: Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality. Article 25: (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widow- hood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. (2) …

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Appendix 3

Societal abuses, discrimination, and violence in the U.S. Department of State’s

2011 Kenya country report on human rights practices

(see http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/186418.pdf, 40-41, accessed 17 Jun 2013)

Societal Abuses, Discrimination, and Acts of Violence Other Societal Violence or Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

The penal code criminalizes “carnal knowledge against the Societal discrimination against persons with HIV/AIDS was a order of nature,” which is interpreted to prohibit consensual problem. Stigmatization of HIV/AIDS made it difficult for same-sex sexual activity and specifies a maximum penalty of many families to acknowledge that a member was HIV- 14 years’ imprisonment. A separate statute specifically crimi- positive, and no socially or politically prominent individual nalizes sex between men and specifies a maximum penalty of admitted being HIV-positive. Violence against persons with 21 years’ imprisonment. Police detained persons under these HIV/AIDS occurred. laws, particularly suspected sex workers, but released them shortly afterward. There were no reported prosecutions of in- The government worked in cooperation with international dividuals for same-sex sexual activity during the year. donors on programs for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment. This cooperation enabled a continued expansion of counseling LGBT advocacy organizations, such as the Gay and Lesbian and testing as well as care and treatment. These developments Coalition of Kenya (GALCK), were permitted to register and were seen as key to reducing stigma and discrimination. conduct activities. However, societal discrimination based on sexual orientation was widespread and resulted in loss of em- Mob violence and vigilante action were common and resulted ployment and educational opportunities. Violence against the in numerous deaths. Most victims were persons suspected of LGBT community also occurred, particularly in rural areas and criminal activities, including theft, robbery, killings, cattle among refugees. NGO groups reported that police intervened rustling, and membership in criminal or terrorist gangs. Human to stop attacks but were not generally sympathetic to LGBT rights observers attributed vigilante violence to a lack of public individuals or concerns. confidence in police and the criminal justice system, in which assailants evaded arrest or bribed their way out of jail. The During the year an LGBT group in Mombasa relocated its social acceptability of mob violence also provided cover for offices to a more secure location and advised its members to acts of personal vengeance, including settling land disputes. maintain a low profile when coming to the group’s office to avoid attack. On September 27, a mob killed three men who had failed in a robbery attempt. According to the 2011 Annual Report of the Observatory, in February 2010 religious leaders in Mtwapa issued antigay Mobs also attacked persons suspected of witchcraft or partici- statements and demanded the closure of the Kenya Medical pation in ritual killings, particularly in Kisii district and Nyan- Research Institute, which conducts research and provides za and Western provinces. Although local officials spoke out treatment to persons with HIV/AIDS. Crowds subsequently against witch burning and increased police patrols to discour- attacked the center and beat one of its volunteers. Other volun- age the practice, human rights NGOs noted public reluctance teers were taken into police protective custody. All were re- to report such cases due to fear of retribution. leased without charge, but none of the attackers was arrested. In May a mob killed a man and his wife and burned their home On two occasions in 2010, Denis Karimi Nzioka, GALCK’s in Nyahera Village after the mutilated body of a boy was public relations officer and a writer on LGBT issues, was found, and the mob attributed the death to the couple’s sus- forced to move from his home by neighbors who said they pected involvement in witchcraft. Police at the scene did not knew he was gay. Nzioka was also targeted by unknown per- intervene to prevent the attack. No action was taken by year’s sons on the streets who threatened him with violence or death. end. Unlike in previous years, no anti-LGBT publicity campaigns [ ] HIV/AIDS-related were conducted; however, sensational reporting often inflamed societal prejudices. [ ] lynchings-related

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Appendix 4

The lynching problem [in America today, in the early 1930s] is of high national importance (Milton 2003 [1933]:v).

Chart 1: Total lynchings Kenya 1993 & 2011 vs. the U.S. 1892 & 1930

Chart 2: Per capita lynchings Kenya 1993 & 2011 vs. the U.S. 1892 & 1930

For the 1993 Kenya lynching figure, see the U.S. Department of State’s 1993 country report on human rights practices (at http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/democracy/1993_hrp_report/93hrp_report_africa/Kenya.html, accessed 17 Jun 2013); for the 2011 figure, my source is the Kenya Police’s 2011 annual crime report (at http://www.kenyapolice.go.ke/resources/CRIME%20REPORT%202011.pdf, accessed 2 Feb 2013). For the two U.S. lynching figures, see statistics provided by the Archives at Tuskegee Institute (at http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/shipp/lynchingyear.html, accessed 3 Feb 2013).

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Works cited

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Tolnay, Stewart E., and E. M. Beck. 1995. A festival of violence: An analysis of southern lynchings, 1882-1930. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Wells-Barnett, Ida B. 2002. On lynchings. With an introduction by Patricia Hill Collins. New York: Humanity Books. Welsh, Bridget. 2010. Local and national: Lynch mobs in Indonesia. Collective violence in Indo- nesia, ed. by Ashutosh Varshney, 119-143. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers. White, Walter. 1969. Rope and faggot: A biography of Judge Lynch. With a new preface by Roy Wilkins. New York: Arno Press and the New York Times. Wilson, G. M. 1967. Homicide and suicide among the Joluo of Kenya. African homicide and suicide, ed. by Paul Bohannan, 179-213. New York: Atheneum.

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Endnotes

1 For two Kenyan media stories in which, by my judgment, ‘lynch’ is used incorrectly in Kenyan English, see ‘Boy kills brother over politics,’ Star, 11 Mar 2013, by Shaban Makokha, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article- 111444/boy-kills-brother-over-politics, accessed 12 Apr 2013; ‘2 held over Mumias murders,’ Star, 2 Jul 2013, by Shaban Makokha, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-126556/2-held-over-mumias-murders, accessed 24 Jul 2013. In each case, one person (not a mob) kills another. 2 Concerning a sample of Indonesia’s very numerous keroyokan mobbings from 1995-2004, see, e.g., Welsh (2010) and a related paper available online at http://www.yale.edu/macmillan/ocvprogram/OCV_Welsh.pdf, accessed 22 Aug 2013. 3 ‘A routine crime,’ The Economist, print edition, 18 Jun 2009, Nairobi, http://www.economist.com/node/13876716, accessed 26 Jan 2013. 4 ‘Country reports on human rights practices for 1992,’ Feb 1993, 119, U.S. Department of State, http://archive.org/stream/countryreportson1992unit#page/n1/mode/2up, accessed 23 Aug 2013; ‘Kenya human rights practices, 1993,’ 31 Jan 1994, U.S. Department of State, http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/democracy/1993_hrp_report/93hrp_report_africa/Kenya.html, accessed 23 Aug 2013; ‘[2000 country reports on human rights practices: ]Kenya,’ 23 Feb 2001, U.S. Department of State, http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2000/af/841.htm, accessed 23 Aug 2013. No source is cited for the figures for 1992 or 1993; Kenya’s Government is given as the source of the 2000 figure of 240, as it is for report figures for January-September 1999 and 2001-2003. What is not clear here is how consistently Kenya’s Government has kept annual mob justice figures that it has not published or made otherwise available to the public. 5 See, e.g., ‘Man, 76, beaten to death during beer party brawl,’ Nation, Briefly (3rd of 5), 18 Apr 2007, 28, in which a lynching is reported in a second, non-headline item of a brief by the single sentence, “In Vihiga District, a suspected criminal was lynched by villagers at Wamulalu, Central Maragoli Location.” 6 ‘Police and mobs kill 6 suspects in Nairobi,’ Star, 24 Jul 2012, by Dominic Wabala, http://www.the- star.co.ke/news/article-9088/police-and-mobs-kill-6-suspects-nairobi, accessed 1 May 2013, with copy-editing of the direct quote. The same day’s lynchings are mentioned as an example of mob violence killings in the U.S. De- partment of State’s 2012 Kenya country report on human rights practices, though the date that the country report gives for these lynchings is that of the Star article I cite as reporting them (‘Kenya 2012 human rights report,’ U.S. Department of State, 50, http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/index.htm?year=2012&dlid=204131, accessed 27 Apr 2013). 7 Standard, Palaver, 15, 23 Jan 2009 (1st of 5 items); italics added, and with only Onyango’s attributed direct speech quoted here. 8 ‘Kenyans their own worst enemies in the war against fake or stolen goods,’ Nation, Opinion, 6 Oct 2012, by Peter Mwaura, http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/-/440808/1526180/-/l7ujfdz/-/index.html, accessed 7 Mar 2013; italics added, with one paragraph break deleted. 9 ‘Cast the first stone if you haven’t sinned,’ Nation, 1 May 2013, by Elizabeth Njora, http://www.nation.co.ke/Features/Living/Cast-the-first-stone-if-you-havent-sinned/-/1218/1762394/-/30mt2gz/- /index.html, accessed 25 Jun 2013. 10 See, e.g., ‘Ojaamong urges locals to stop lynching,’ Star, 27 Feb 2012, by Reuben Olita, http://www.the- star.co.ke/news/article-28628/ojaamong-urges-locals-stop-lynching, accessed 5 Mar 2013. Then see also, as opposed examples, ‘Lynch thieves, MP Kizito tells villagers,’ Star, 30 May 2011, by Hilton Otenyo, http://www.the- star.co.ke/news/article-62024/lynch-thieves-mp-kizito-tells-villagers, accessed 5 Mar 2013; ‘Kiambu Kuppet [Ken- ya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers] warns traitor,’ Star, 6 Sep 2012, by Stanley Njenga, http://www.the- star.co.ke/news/article-3335/kiambu-kuppet-warns-traitors, accessed 5 Mar 2013; and ‘Hunt down the killers, Musi- la tells irate locals,’ 8 Jul 2013, by Musembi Nzengu, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-127233/hunt-down- killers-musila-tells-irate-locals, accessed 9 Jul 2013. 11 See, e.g., ‘We must stem this violence,’ Nation, Editorial, 4 Jun 2003, 8; ‘A frightening culture of violence and chaos,’ Nation, Opinion & Analysis, 18 May 2003, 18, by Sunny Bindra. Although it does not use the exact phrase ‘culture of violence’, see also the very similar ‘Kenya sitting on a ticking time bomb,’ Nation, 20 Aug 2013, by Clay Muganda, http://www.nation.co.ke/life+style/DN2/Kenya+sitting+on+a+ticking+time+bomb/-/957860/1959588/- /ulkb3a/-/index.html, accessed 23 Aug 2013.

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12 ‘10 killed as mobs mete out justice,’ Nation, 7 May 2013, by Zadock Angira, http://www.nation.co.ke/News/10- killed-as-mobs-mete-out-justice/-/1056/1845634/-/wxyjdk/-/index.html, accessed 20 May 2013. 13 ‘Four killed in renewed Mandera fighting,’ Nation, 29 Jun 2013, by Sunday Nation Team, http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/1899418/-/w2o499z/-/index.html, accessed 29 Jun 2013. 14 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cruel, accessed 3 Feb 2013; http://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/cruel%20and%20unusual%20punishment, accessed 3 Feb 2013. 15 See, e.g., ‘Stop these savage killings of animals,’ Star, 8 Feb 2013, by Salisha Chandra and John Mbaria, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-106515/stop-these-savage-killings-animals, accessed 10 Feb 2013. 16 See articles mentioned in other notes for examples of at least many of these methods. For a possible lynching by slitting the victim’s throat (though with this case not the only one in my data where this method was used), see ‘Sus- pected witchdoctor found dead outside Ganze bar,’ Star, 30 May 2013, by Elias Yaa, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-122414/suspected-witchdoctor-found-dead-outside-ganze-bar, accessed 24 Jun 2013; while for my data’s unique case involving burial alive (together with at least beating and burning), see ‘‘Witchdoctor’ buried alive over son’s death,’ Standard, 24 Jun 2013, by Kenan Miruka, http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/entertainment/pulse/77/crazy-world/719/witchdoctor-buried-alive-over-sons-death, accessed 24 Jun 2013. 17 See, for just two ambiguous cases from my data that may both in fact hint at an avoidance of hanging as a lynching method for Kenyans, ‘Vigilantes kill with equal force,’ Standard, 18 May 2009, by Standard Team, http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=1144014452&story_title=Vigilantes-who-kill-with-equal-force, accessed 6 Mar 2013; ‘Mathioya notorious thugs lynched,’ Star, 19 Oct 2012, by Jesse Mwangi, http://www.the- star.co.ke/news/article-91836/mathioya-notorious-thugs-lynched, accessed 6 Mar 2013. And see also, in one or another hanging-related regard (e.g., hanging as perhaps not cruel enough to fit whatever the alleged crime; hanging as Kenya’s legal death penalty; hanging as a common method of suicide in at least parts of Kenya; hanging as perhaps too deliberate a method for either the anger or relative spontaneity that appears to be a part of so many Kenyan lynchings), Bohannan (1967:174-78) concerning the Luhya, Wilson (1967:193-213) concerning the Luo, and the appendix tables of unnumbered pages 290-94 of Bohannan, ed. (1967) concerning the prevalence of hanging as the means of suicide for that volume’s non-Kenyan peoples. 18 See, e.g., ‘Runaway insecurity a symptom of descent into a failed State,’ Nation, Opinion, 26 Jan 2011, by Paul Muite, http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/Runaway+insecurity+a+symptom+of+Kenyas+descent/- /440808/1096416/-/7eumgvz/-/index.html, accessed 23 Aug 2013; ‘Lynch suspects at your own peril, say police,’ Nation, 23 May 2012, by Galgalo Bocha, http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Police-warn-public-over-mob-justice-/- /1056/1412254/-/1xpv8az/-/index.html, accessed 19 Feb 2013—the reader comment by PamMK, copy-edited: “But the police do the lynching themselves ... why are they confusing us???” Concerning the Kenya Police’s notoriety, deserved or not, for extra-judicial killings, see, e.g., ‘Police on the spot over killing of 13 suspects,’ Standard, 29 Jun 2013, by Standard on Saturday Reporter and Agencies, http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000087086&story_title=Kenya-police-on-the-spot-over-killing-of-13- suspects, accessed 29 Jun 2013. 19 See, e.g., the references to stoning in both Mutahi (1996:51) and ‘Where animal lovers are lynched,’ Standard, 28 Nov 2010, by Ted Malanda, http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000023513&story_title=Where-animal-lovers- are-lynched-, accessed 11 Feb 2013. 20 See ‘Kitui jailbird lynched after midnight attack,’ Star, 13 Jul 2011, by Phillip Muasya, http://www.the- star.co.ke/news/article-57280/kitui-jailbird-lynched-after-midnight-attack, accessed 5 Mar 2013; which article, when it first appeared online, was accompanied by a photo that may have shown—uncharacteristically, I believe, for Ken- ya’s media—the victim’s brain spilled out of his skull. 21 Notwithstanding the contextual truth of ‘Our mobs do not torture suspects’ (Nation, The Week That Was, with Gakiha Weru, 27 Apr 2008, 2), see, for some references to torture as part of Kenyan lynchings or to some Kenyan lynchings qualifying as torture in UN eyes, ‘Motorcycle thief lynched at Kogelo,’ Star, 28 Apr 2011, by Justus Ochieng, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-65251/motor-cycle-thief-lynched-kogelo, 5 Mar 2013; ‘Time to tame mob injustice is now,’ Standard, 7 Apr 2010, by Judith Akinyi, http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000007119&story_title=Time-to-tame-mob-injustice-is-now-, accessed 5 Mar 2013; ‘To end torture, let’s stop lynch mobs too,’ Nation, Opinion, 24 Jun 2011, by Gabriel Dolan, http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/To-end-torture--let-s-stop-lynch-mobs-too-/-/440808/1188542/-/mvthda/- /index.html, accessed 5 Mar 2013; ‘Kenyan officials quizzed over torture report,’ Nation, 15 May 2013, by Caroline Wafula, http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Kenyan-officials-quizzed-over-torture-report/-/1056/1853612/-/21k31m/- /index.html, accessed 15 May 2013.

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22 See, for two articles I remember as reporting the taking of body parts, ‘Unkind end for suspected witch,’ Stand- ard, 7 Jan 2013, by Linah Benyawa, http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000074426&story_title=Unkind-end- for-suspected-witch, accessed 17 Apr 2013, in which the victim’s severed penis was reported found at the local mar- ket where he was known to play draughts (checkers); ‘Suspect stoned and beheaded by angry mob,’ 31 Dec 2010, by Moraa Obiria, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-77027/suspect-stoned-and-beheaded-angry-mob, accessed 1 May 2013, in which the victim was reported to have been stoned unconscious, then decapitated—which I believe to be the only such case in my data. In contrast, concerning trophy taking from the bodies of lynched black Americans, see Chacon & Dye (2008:19-20). 23 ‘Evictions bring out the worst in Kenyans,’ Nation, Editorial, 22 Dec 1996, 6; ‘Woman arrested over guard’s lynching,’ Nation, 23 Dec 1996, 1 (cont. on 2), by Nation Correspondent. 24 ‘Mob kills six card-players and sets their bodies on fire,’ Nation, Crime, 18 Jul 2006, 1 (cont. on 3), by Simon Siele. 25 ‘The cutting edge,’ Nation, News Analysis (6th brief of 8), 23 Jul 2006, 11, by Watchman. 26 ‘More than 100 lynched in two months,’ Nation, 31 Aug 2011, by Fred Mukinda, http://www.nation.co.ke/News/More-than-100-lynched-in-two-months/-/1056/1228606/-/lmugyxz/-/index.html, accessed 11 Feb 2013. 27 ‘Stop these mob killings,’ Nation, Editorial, 1 Sep 2011, http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Editorial/Stop-these-mob- killings/-/440804/1228922/-/14gsmeo/-/index.html, accessed 11 Feb 2013. The two sentences quoted are in separate paragraphs in the original. 28 See, for just a few examples of punishments set by Kenyan law and/or handed down by Kenya’s courts for the same kinds of crimes that can provoke Kenyan mobs to cruel lynchings, ‘A slap on the wrist for rapist,’ Nation, Edi- torial, 4 May 2002, 8; ‘Cow thief jailed for three years,’ Nation, Briefs (4th of 4), 24 Dec 2003, 17; ‘Man to serve 3 years in jail for stealing calf,’ Nation, Briefly (1st of 5), 29 Aug 2008, 32; ‘Kenyans their own worst enemies in the war against fake or stolen goods,’ Nation (see note 8), in which journalist Mwaura mentions three years in prison as the “general penalty for theft.” 29 See, e.g., ‘Lynched trio ‘innocent’,’ Nation, 11 Jan 1999, 15, by Nation Correspondent; ‘Fatal mistake cost a magistrate life,’ Standard, 18 Apr 2009, by Cyrus Ombati, http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=1144011869&story_title=Fatal-mistake-cost-a-magistrate-life, accessed 1 May 2013; ‘Man lynched by mob was seen as hero who changed village life,’ Nation, 20 Aug 2013, http://www.nation.co.ke/counties/Man+lynched+by+mob+was+seen+as+hero+who+changed+village+life/- /1107872/1961920/-/uc9134/-/index.html, accessed 23 Aug 2013. For an expression of a Kenyan view (minority, probably, I believe) that witch-allegation lynchings necessarily involve innocent victims, see, e.g., ‘Stop killings by witch-hunt mobs,’ Nation, Editorial, 8 Sep 1998, 6, in which, “The lives of innocent people must not be destroyed over mere superstition. The bloodthirsty mobs must be stopped now.” Another Kenyan reacted as follows to the lynching of three persons evidently innocent (see ‘Lynch mobs,’ Nation Digital, Short takes, 26 Aug 2013, 14, by Kiarie Peter): “So, what do you do after realising that you’ve killed me “by mistake”? Apologise? To who? Death is worlds apart from sleep. It’s about time this lunacy died.” 30 For three very graphic examples that involve burning as at least part of the lynching (not recommended for anyone disturbed by graphic violence), see ‘Witches burned alive in Kenya, Africa,’ http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1fe_1310865020, accessed 3 Feb 2013; ‘Thieves burned alive in Kenya for stealing potatoes,’ http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c5f_1309711220&comments=1, accessed 3 Feb 2013; ‘Mob lynches man in Kenya before the police execute him,’ http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e68_1348031935, accessed 3 Feb 2013. 31 For a written reaction to what I believe must be the video of the alleged witches being burned alive (see note 30), see ‘Shame of witch-hunts,’ Nation, 27 Feb 2012, by Waga Odongo, http://www.nation.co.ke/Features/DN2/Shame- of-witch-hunts-/-/957860/1335432/-/59dutoz/-/index.html, accessed 26 Feb 2013. For just one of a number of You- Tube reactions to the video of the two potato thieves being burned alive (see note 30), see ‘Sickening 2 thieves stealing a sack of potatoes in Kenya get burned in fire,’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6sQNoF01JU, accessed 1 May 2013. 32 See, e.g., ‘Justice system in the dock after residents lynch ten,’ Nation, 18 Sep 2008, by Daniel Otieno, http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/472316/-/tktrg2/-/index.html, accessed 24 Feb 2013; ‘Runaway insecurity a symptom of Kenya’s descent into a failed State,’ Nation (see note 18); ‘Those who have stolen from the public remain free,’ Nation, Opinion, 26 Dec 2009, by Ahmednasir Abdullahi, http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/- /440808/831416/-/5pn0ua/-/index.html, accessed 24 Feb 2013—the reader comment by olegaita66 that includes, “When citizens don’t trust their law enforcement officers, what do they do? They use mob justice, right?”

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33 ‘Kenya human rights practices, 1993,’ U.S. Department of State (see note 4). 34 ‘More than 100 lynched in two months,’ Nation (see note 26). 35 What I speak of here as theft of a person, the media more commonly call either abduction or kidnapping (see, e.g., ‘Kidnap suspects lynched,’ Nation, 1 Dec 1999, 4, by Nation Reporters; ‘Families in pain over chilling murders,’ Standard, 11 Aug 2012, by Oscar Obonyo, http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000063816&story_title=Families-in-pain-over-chilling-murders, accessed 13 Apr 2013). However, I know of at least two articles that call it theft, whether or not also abduction or kidnapping (see ‘Nanyuki ‘child thief’ saved from angry mob,’ Star, 12 Apr 2013, by Kings Waweru, http://www.the- star.co.ke/news/article-116377/nanyuki-child-thief-saved-angry-mob, accessed 1 May 2013; ‘Boy saved from man accused of child theft,’ Nation Digital, 23 Jul 2013, by Nation Correspondent, 21); and interestingly, the latter of these two articles says that the “suspected kidnapper,” after his arrest by police, was charged in court “with child theft.” 36 See, e.g., ‘Five suspects lynched in foiled theft attempt,’ Standard, 23 Sep 2008, 12, by Standard Team; ‘Mob beats carjacker to death,’ Nation, 27 Nov 1996, 20, by Nation Correspondent; ‘Gangsters shot dead,’ Nation, 9 Mar 1997, 4, by Sunday Nation Correspondents; ‘Villagers kill three suspects,’ Nation, 2 Feb 1999, 5, by Nation Corre- spondent. 37 See, e.g., ‘Suspected thief beaten to death,’ Nation, Briefs (4th of 5), 12 Nov 2005, 11; ‘Mob violence spiraling out of control in Meru,’ Standard, 2 Feb 2008, 12, by Patrick Muriungi. 38 See, e.g., ‘Suspects lynched by mob ‘resurrect’ in mortuary,’ Standard, 9 May 2011, by Kenan Miruka, http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000034722&story_title=Suspects-lynched-by-mob-'resurrect'-in-mortuary, accessed 8 Mar 2013; ‘Three lynched after raid on village shops,’ Nation, 1 Sep 2011, by Nation Correspondent, http://www.nation.co.ke/News/regional/Three-lynched-after-raid-on-village-shops/-/1070/1229126/-/15aol5h/- /index.html, accessed 8 Mar 2013. 39 See, e.g., ‘G4S driver arrested with Sh17 million,’ Standard, 26 Feb 2010, by Cyrus Ombati and Audrey Moraa, http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000004295&story_title=G4S-driver-arrested-with-Sh17-million, accessed 7 Feb 2013; ‘Suspected thief burnt to death,’ Star, 14 Jun 2011, by Kiplang’at Kirui, http://www.the- star.co.ke/news/article-60464/suspected-thief-burnt-death, accessed 7 Feb 2013; ‘Burglary suspects face mob wrath,’ Nation, 6 Jan 1999, 17, by Nation Correspondent; ‘Villagers lynch 3 gangsters in Kisii,’ Standard, 16 Jun 2003, by Willice Ochieng, http://allafrica.com/stories/200306160579.html, stub accessed 8 Mar 2013. 40 See, e.g., ‘Suspect lynched,’ Nation, 25 Jan 1998, 4 (my clipping has no additional information available); ‘Police kill five gangsters in city,’ Star, 3 Jul 2012, by Dominic Wabala, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article- 11961/police-kill-five-gangsters-city, accessed 7 Feb 2013. 41 See, e.g., ‘Telcom wires thief lynched by the public,’ Star, 14 Jul 2011, by Wanjohi Gakio, http://www.the- star.co.ke/news/article-57143/telcom-wires-thief-lynched-public, accessed 8 Mar 2013. 42 See, e.g., ‘Schoolboy, 19, beaten to death,’ Nation, 21 May 2000, 28, by Sunday Nation Correspondent; ‘Villagers lynch brothers over Mungiki claims,’ Nation, 21 May 2008, 34, by Nation Correspondents—viz., Waikwa Maina, Mwangi Ndirangu and Steven Munyiri; ‘Meru village rabbit thief burnt to death,’ Star, 14 Nov 2011, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-41697/meru-village-rabbit-thief-burnt-death, accessed 7 Feb 2013; ‘Villagers lynch man over hen,’ Standard, 24 Jun 2008, 11, by Robert Nyasato; ‘Suspect is killed for milking cow,’ Nation, 5 Apr 2002, 19, by Nation Correspondent. 43 See, e.g., ‘Farmers stone suspect to death,’ Nation, 24 Jan 1998, 23, by Silas Nthiga and Muthui Mwai; ‘Thieves burned alive in Kenya for stealing potatoes’ (very graphic; see note 30). 44 See, e.g., ‘Suspected tomato thief killed by mob,’ Nation, Briefly (4th of 5), 7 Feb 2007, 32; ‘Villagers kill suspected thief,’ Nation, Newsview in brief (1st of unknown number), 20 Jun 1998, 4; ‘Man aged 28 lynched for stealing maize,’ Star, 1 Apr 2011, by Angwenyi Gichana, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-67862/man-aged-28- lynched-stealing-maize, accessed 6 Feb 2013; ‘Suspected thief killed,’ Nation, 21 Feb 1999, 3, by Sunday Nation Correspondent; ‘Nyeri mob kills arrowroot thief,’ Star, 29 Dec 2012, by Wambugu Kanyi, http://www.the- star.co.ke/news/article-100807/nyeri-mob-kills-arrowroot-thief, accessed 6 Feb 2013. 45 See, e.g., ‘Wounds of post-election violence still raw in Kenya,’ National Public Radio, 10 Nov 2009, by Gwen Thompkins, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120277520, accessed 13 Feb 2013, in which a 26-year-old Kalenjin interviewed at Eldoret is quoted as saying that he felt nothing when more than thirty Kikuyu women and children were burned alive in an area church, and that, “Even up to now I’m still angry. It was not a fair election. It was just a stolen election.” 46 See, e.g., ‘City Hall pledges to upgrade schools,’ Standard, 8 Mar 2011, by Boniface Ongeri, https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000030689&story_title=City-Hall-pledges-to-upgrade-schools, ac-

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cessed 23 Aug 2013; ‘Man beaten to death for ‘adultery’,’ Standard, 18 Jun 2008, by Robert Nyasato and Nick Olu- och; ‘Two stoned to death over illicit love affair,’ Nation, 7 Sep 2011, by Charles Wanyoro, additional reporting by Jackline Moraa and James Kariuki, http://www.nation.co.ke/News/regional/Two-stoned-to-death-over-illicit-love- affair/-/1070/1232370/-/glkuxh/-/index.html, accessed 8 Mar 2013; ‘Six killed as crime wave hits Central,’ Nation, 18 Dec 2012, by Eric Mutai, http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Six-killed-as-crime-wave-hits-Central/-/1056/1646384/- /ecwj05/-/index.html, accessed 6 Feb 2013; ‘Bomet sex pest lynched by mob,’ Star, 28 Jan 2012, by Gilbert Kimu- tai, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-32396/bomet-sex-pest-lynched-mob, accessed 13 Feb 2013. For a recent article that reports villagers beating a man, then turning him over to the police, after he was caught in the act with a neighbor’s goat, see ‘Barongo man flees naked after he was caught in the act with a goat,’ Standard, 23 Jul 2013, by Robert Kiplagat, http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000089146&story_title=man-flees-naked-after-he- was-caught-in-the-act-with-a-goat, accessed 24 Jul 2013—with a number of articles following in the Star, Nation, and Standard concerning bestiality in Kenya and reactions to it by various parts of Kenyan society. 47 See ‘Gay man stoned to death in Nairobi slum,’ Identity Kenya, n.d., http://www.identitykenya.com/index.php/daily-news/241-gay-man-stoned-to-death-in-nairobi-slum, accessed 13 Feb 2013. For a recent article that significantly, to me, does not mention lynching as one of the ways gays in Kenya report they have been abused, see ‘Dark world of Kenyan homosexuals,’ Standard, 25 Feb 2013, by Njoki Chege, http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000078052&story_title=Kenya-Dark-world-of-Kenyan-homosexuals, accessed 25 Feb 2013. For an opinion piece that does not mention any lynchings of gays, see ‘You can’t wish away African gays,’ Nation, Opinion, 10 Mar 2010, by David Kuria, http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/You-cant- wish-away-African-gays-/-/440808/876684/-/csg2k6z/-/index.html, accessed 8 Mar 2013; while for an opinion piece with a non-specific reference to some African communities having punished “culprits of [same-sex] behaviour” by lynching (traditionally, I assume), see ‘Nothing’s African about gays,’ Nation, Opinion, 7 Mar 2010, by Fr Dominic Waweru, http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/Nothing-is-African-about-gays-/-/440808/874988/-/a3tytd/- /index.html, accessed 8 Mar 2013. For a recent article whose initial paragraphs appear to report a mob assault on a gay but where a later sentence appears to have it rather the assault of one gay by another, see ‘Mbura defends gay rights,’ Star, 24 Jun 2013, by Charles Mghenyi, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-125378/mbura-defends-gay- rights, accessed 26 Jun 2013. For a recent article that mentions two casual laborers being beaten, not lynched, after being caught in a homosexual act, see ‘Nairobi gay community use ‘dirty tricks’ to spread influence,’ Standard, 27 Jun 2013, by Nyambega Gisesa, http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000086928&story_title=nairobi-gay- community-use-dirty-tricks-to-spread-influence&pageNo=1, accessed 28 Jun 2013. For a recent article that alleges a gay man being stoned, literally, but not killed (or perhaps even injured seriously?), see ‘If you are gay and proud…,’ Star, 6 Jul 2013, by Diana Wangari, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-127108/if-you-are-gay-and-proud, accessed 6 Jul 2013. For a recent article that reports a crowd wanting to lynch a 30-year-old man for sodomizing a 50- year-old whom he had offered to help home after the latter had been on a drinking spree (with the homosexual rape concerned clearly not the same as consensual same-sex sex), see ‘Drunk man, 50[,] sodomised,’ Star, 23 Jul 2013, by Jane Mugambi, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-129134/drunk-man-50-sodomised, accessed 24 Jul 2013. 48 See, e.g., ‘Man butchers wife, relatives,’ Nation, 14 Jun 1998, 1 (cont. on 2), by Maguta Kimemia and Kimani Waiyai; ‘Neighbours kill man for slashing his father,’ Nation, Briefly (1st of 5), 25 Dec 2007, 33; ‘Man lynched for allegedly killing his mother,’ Standard, 28 May 2011, by Roselyne Obala, http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000036031&story_title=Man-lynched-for-allegedly-killing-his-mother-, accessed 13 Feb 2013; ‘‘Mentally unstable’ man strangles his wife,’ Nation, 23 Nov 2010, by Ouma Wanzala and Philemon Suter, http://www.nation.co.ke/News/regional/Mentally-unstable-man-strangles-his-wife-/- /1070/1059356/-/80q0jl/-/index.html, accessed 26 Feb 2013, in a non-lead item of which a man is reported lynched for allegedly stabbing a provincial administrator; ‘Man beaten to death,’ Star, 19 Sep 2012, by Jane Mugambi, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-1688/man-beaten-death, accessed 26 Feb 2013. 49 The following three media articles are examples of ones that mention Kenya’s Witchcraft Act: ‘When brothers hacked sibling and father, 68, to death,’ Nation, 31 Jul 2006, 4, by Daniel Nyassy; ‘Malindi elders flay youth killing witches,’ Star, 11 Jun 2011, by Alphonce Gari, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-60692/malindi-elders-flay- youth-killing-witches, accessed 11 Feb 2013; ‘Police arrest 10 suspects over Borabu lynching,’ Star, 2 Mar 2012, by Benson Nyagesiba, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-27957/police-arrest-10-suspects-over-borabu-lynching, accessed 11 Feb 2013. The Witchcraft Act itself, the text of which is only two pages, is available online at http://www.kenyalaw.org/klr/fileadmin/pdfdownloads/Acts/WitchcraftActCap67.pdf, accessed 11 Feb 2013. 50 See, e.g., ‘Woman lynched over family row,’ Nation, 1 Sep 1998, 5, by Nation Correspondent, as well as the follow-up ‘Lynching suspects defended,’ Nation, 2 Sep 1998, 3, by Nation Correspondent; ‘Witches deserve punishment,’ Nation, Mailbox, 21 Sep 1998, 7, by David Sanganyi; ‘Police watch as mob kills suspected witches,’ Stand-

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ard, 17 May 2011, by Kepher Otieno, http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000035296&story_title=Police-watch- as-mob-kills-suspected-witches-, accessed 25 Feb 2013; ‘Suspected thief, wizard lynched in Watamu,’ Star, 23 May 2011, by Alphonce Gari, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-62727/suspected-thief-wizard-lynched-watamu, accessed 25 Feb 2013; ‘Ex-Kanu chief lynched on suspicion of bewitching son,’ Star, 10 Jul 2012, by Alphonce Gari, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-11020/ex-kanu-chief-lynched-suspicion-bewitching-son, accessed 26 Feb 2013. 51 See, e.g., ‘Residents batter suspect to death,’ Nation, 15 Apr 1998, 22, by Nation Correspondent; ‘Suspected Mungiki lynched,’ Star, 26 Apr 2011, by Jane Mugambi, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-65477/suspected- mungiki-lynched, accessed 25 Feb 2013; ‘Suspected robber lynched in Sagana,’ Star, 2 Jun 2011, by Jane Mugambi, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-61649/suspected-robber-lynched-sagana, accessed 13 Feb 2013. 52 For “terror gangs,” see Kenya country reports for 1998-2006 at their respective links: ‘Kenya country report on human rights practices for 1998,’ 26 Feb 1999, U.S. Department of State, http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/1998_hrp_report/kenya.html, accessed 23 Aug 2013; ‘1999 country report on human rights practices for 1999: Kenya,’ 25 Feb 2000, U.S. Department of State, http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/1999_hrp_report/kenya.html, accessed 23 Aug 2013; ‘‘[2000 country reports on human rights practices: ]Kenya,’ U.S. Department of State (see note 4); ‘[2001 country reports on human rights practices: ]Kenya,’ 4 Mar 2002, U.S. Department of State, http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2001/af/8386.htm, accessed 23 Aug 2013; ‘[2002 country reports on human rights practices: ]Kenya,’ 31 Mar 2003, U.S. Department of State, http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2002/18209.htm, accessed 23 Aug 2013; ‘[2003 country reports on human rights practices: ]Kenya,’ 25 Feb 2004, U.S. Department of State, http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2003/27733.htm, accessed 23 Aug 2013; ‘[2004 country reports on human rights practices: ]Kenya,’ 28 Feb 2005, U.S. Department of State, http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/41609.htm, accessed 23 Aug 2013; ‘[2005 country reports on human rights practices: ]Kenya,’ 8 Mar 2006, U.S. Department of State, http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61575.htm, accessed 23 Aug 2013; ‘[2006 country reports on human rights practices: ]Kenya,’ 6 Mar 2007, U.S. Department of State, http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78740.htm, accessed 23 Aug 2013. For “terrorist gangs,” see Kenya country reports for 2007, 2008 at their respective links: ‘[2007 country report on human rights practices: ]Kenya,’ 11 Mar 2008, U.S. Department of State, http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2007/100487.htm, accessed 23 Aug 2013; ‘2008 human rights report: Kenya,’ 25 Feb 2009, U.S. Department of State, http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/af/119007.htm, accessed 23 Aug 2013 http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/. For “criminal or terrorist gangs,” see Kenya country reports for 2009-2012 at their respective links: ‘2009 human rights report: Kenya,’ 11 Mar 2010, U.S. Department of State, http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2009/af/135959.htm, accessed 23 Aug 2013; ‘2010 human rights report: Kenya,’ 8 Apr 2011, U.S. Department of State, http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2010/af/154352.htm, accessed 23 Aug 2013; ‘2011 human rights reports: Kenya,’ 24 May 2011, U.S. Department of State, http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2011/af/186208.htm, accessed 23 Aug 2013; ‘Country reports on human rights practices for 2012: Kenya,’ U.S. Department of State, http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/index.htm?year=2012&dlid=204131, accessed 23 Aug 2013. 53 See, e.g., ‘Man ejected from bus and killed by mob,’ Nation, Election Aftermath, 28 Jan 2008, 6, by Nation Cor- respondent. 54 ‘We are sinking into the realms of warlords, fugitives and failed states,’ Standard, 22 Jan 2011, http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000027218&story_title=We-are-sinking-into-the-realms-of-warlords,- fugitives-and-failed-states, accessed 10 Feb 2013. 55 ‘Five reasons why we are a mediocre country,’ Nation, Opinion, 10 Aug 2013, by Makau Mutua, http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/Five-reasons-why-we-are-a-mediocre-country-/-/440808/1943560/- /yuitewz/-/index.html, accessed 21 Aug 2013. From my own experience of twelve years’ residence in Kenya, I believe Mutua generalizes, but not without reason. 56 For an example of something of the range of what police are reported as telling people by way of warning and instruction in the wake of lynchings, see ‘Man lynched in Embu for stealing arrowroots,’ Star, 15 Feb 2011, by Reuben Githinji, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-72177/man-lynched-embu-stealing-arrowroots, accessed 11 Feb 2013. 57 ‘Stop these mob killings,’ Nation (see note 27). 58 Kenya country reports for 1992, 1993, U.S. Department of State (see note 4). 59 ‘Kenya human rights practices, 1993,’ U.S. Department of State (see note 4).

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60 ‘Kenya human rights practices, 1994,’ Feb 1995, U.S. Department of State, http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/democracy/1994_hrp_report/94hrp_report_africa/Kenya.html, accessed 22 Aug 2013. 61 ‘Kenya human rights practices, 1995,’ Mar 1996, U.S. Department of State, http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/democracy/1995_hrp_report/95hrp_report_africa/Kenya.html, accessed 22 Aug 2013. 62 ‘Kenya country report on human rights practices for 1996,’ 30 Jan 1997, U.S. Department of State, http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/1996_hrp_report/kenya.html, accessed 22 Aug 2013. 63 Kenya country reports for 2002, 2003, U.S. Department of State (see note 52). 64 ‘[2004 country report on human rights practices: ]Kenya, U.S. Department of State (see note 52). 65 Kenya country reports on human rights practices for 2005-2008, U.S. Department of State (see note 52). 66 Kenya country reports on human rights practices for 2006-2008, U.S. Department of State (see note 52). 67 ‘2009 human rights report: Kenya,’ U.S. Department of State (see note 52). 68 ‘2010 human rights report: Kenya,’ U.S. Department of State (see note 52). 69 ‘2011 human rights report: Kenya,’ U.S. Department of State (see note 52), with the lynching concerned the subject of ‘Police watch as mob kills suspected witches,’ Standard (see note 50). 70 ‘Country reports on human rights practices for 2012: Kenya,’ U.S. Department of State (see note 52). 71 ‘Kenya report on human rights practices for 1997,’ 30 Jan 1998, U.S. Department of State, http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/1997_hrp_report/kenya.html, accessed 23 Aug 2013; Kenya country reports on human rights practices for 1998, 2009 (see note 52). 72 ‘Two lynched over murder of two Nyamira women,’ Star, 6 May 2011, by Amos Nyambane, http://www.the- star.co.ke/news/article-64391/two-lynched-over-murder-two-nyamira-women, accessed 8 Mar 2013. 73 ‘Lynch suspects at your own peril, say police,’ Nation (see note 18); the reader comment, copy-edited, is by suluhisho. 74 ‘Where lynching still lives,’ Boston Globe, Opinion, 22 Jun 2005, by Daniel M. Goldstein, http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/06/22/where_lynching_still_lives/, accessed 3 May 2013. 75 ‘Public, just like the police, prefers to kill suspects,’ Nation, Letters, 14 Aug 2013, by Job Momanyi, http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Letters/Public+just+like+the+police+prefers+to+kill+suspects/-/440806/1948310/- /x8tobq/-/index.html, accessed 23 Aug 2013. 76 For the only case I recall offhand where members of a mob were sentenced to prison for a lynching, see a reference in ‘Two gangsters lynched by mob in Runyenjes,’ Star, 2 Nov 2012, by Martin Fundi, http://www.the- star.co.ke/news/article-93877/two-gangsters-lynched-mob-runyenjes, accessed 6 Mar 2013; but see also, concerning the appeal of the sentences concerned, ‘4 Embu convicts appeal ‘unfair’ life sentences,’ Star, 3 Apr 2013, by Reu- ben Githinji, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-115046/4-embu-convicts-appeal-unfair-life-sentences, accessed 3 May 2013. For three cases for which I believe the relatively high status of a lynching victim at least largely explains the fact and number of arrests made, see ‘40 held over chief’s lynching,’ Nation, 17 Sep 2008, 16, by Nation Correspondent; ‘Fatal mistake cost a magistrate life,’ Standard, 18 Apr 2009, by Cyrus Ombati, http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=1144011869&story_title=Fatal-mistake-cost-a-magistrate-life, accessed 13 Mar 2013; ‘Police seize 15 linked to Elkana Syong’oh's death,’ Nation, 21 Aug 2013, by Nation Correspondent, http://www.nation.co.ke/news/Police+seize+15+linked+to+DoD+officers+death/-/1056/1963096/-/jluq02z/- /index.html, accessed 26 Aug 2013, and, concerning the number actually charged, ‘12 in the dock over DoD officer killing,’ Nation, 22 Aug 2013, http://www.nation.co.ke/news/12+in+the+dock+over+DoD+officer+killing++/- /1056/1964254/-/sqritkz/-/index.html, accessed 23 Aug 2013. 77 In support of my perception of such modeling of impunity for Kenyan lynch mobs, see, e.g., ‘Will no one act on Mwenje’s ilk?,’ Nation, 9 Feb 2001, http://allafrica.com/stories/200102090248.html, stub accessed 8 Mar 2013. 78 ‘Country reports on human rights practices for 2012: Kenya,’ U.S. Department of State (see note 52). The killings concerned are the same extra-judicial killings by police, observed by many, of ‘Runaway insecurity a symptom of descent into a failed State,’ Nation (see note 18). 79 ‘Uhuru vows to crush gangs as he assures Kenyans of safety,’ Nation, 19 May 2013, by Nation Correspondent, http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Uhuru-vows-to-crush-gangs/-/1056/1857464/-/12b3751z/-/index.html, accessed 20 May 2013; ‘Leaders of killer gang flee to Uganda,’ Nation, 16 May 2013, by Samuel Siringi and Lucas Barasa, http://www.nation.co.ke/News/politics/-/1064/1855112/-/bl139r/-/index.html, accessed 20 May 2013; ‘Bungoma families fear killer gangs could strike back with vengeance,’ Standard, 21 Jun 2013, by Robert Wanyonyi, http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000086517&story_title=bungoma-families-fear-killer-gangs-could- strike-back-with-vengeance&pageNo=2, accessed 28 Jun 2013—which article updates to eighteen the number lynched in response to the Busia and Bungoma attacks while noting six of these had been found innocent. 46

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80 ‘Police, public kill nine in crime war,’ Nation, 12 Aug 2013, by Angira Zadock, http://www.nation.co.ke/Counties/Police+public+kill+nine+in+crime+war/-/1107872/1945908/-/1hj898z/- /index.html, accessed 24 Aug 2013. 81 See, for a report of four recent one-year jail sentences for burning charcoal, ‘Four charcoal burners jailed,’ Star, 28 Aug 2013, by James Wainaina, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-133772/four-charcoal-burners-jailed, accessed 28 Aug 2013. Deforestation is a serious problem in Kenya, this with regard to the country’s water supply. 82 See, concerning the relative poverty of the vast majority of lynching victims, ‘The evil of killing others in the name of the law,’ Nation, Lifestyle, Father Kizito’s Notebook, 16 Apr 2000, 4, in which, “Not to speak of the vile and cowardly habit of the so-called ‘mob justice’. Justice that is only meted out to the poor. I have never heard of an instance where any notorious thief of public land, for instance, has been attacked by a wild mob eager to do ‘justice’.” To appreciate the depth of the alleged problem, see, e.g., ‘Kenyatta led elite in land grabbing,’ 21 May 2013, by Nation Reporter, http://www.nation.co.ke/News/politics/Kenyatta-led-elite-in-land-grabbing-/-/1064/1859262/- /ki3iy1z/-/index.html, accessed 6 Jun 2013, and related media pieces since. 83 See, e.g., ‘Why mushrooming slums pose the biggest threat to national security,’ Nation, 10 Sep 2012, by Kip- chumba Some, http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Why-mushrooming-slums-pose-biggest-threat/-/1056/1502130/- /ls7b2fz/-/index.html, accessed 20 Feb 2013. 84 ‘Water shortages driving growing thefts, conflicts,’ AlertNet, 6 Aug 2012, by Gitonga Njeru, http://allafrica.com/stories/201208070333.html, accessed 8 Mar 2013. 85 ‘Woman arrested over guard’s lynching,’ Nation (see note 23). 86 ‘One dead as peace rally ends in chaos,’ Nation, 24 May 1998, 1 (cont. on 2), by Sunday Nation Team and Agen- cies. As I finish revising this paper for publication in late August 2013, historic land issues remain effectively un- addressed by Kenya’s Government, with widespread suspicion that Government has in fact been a major part of the problem (see, e.g., ‘Jubilee promises to tackle land question,’ Nation, 23 Feb 2013, by George Sayagie and Musa Kurian, with additonal reporting by Ponciano Odongo, http://elections.nation.co.ke/news/Jubilee-promises-to-tackle- land-question-/-/1631868/1702332/-/mh7y4r/-/index.html, accessed 23 Feb 2013). 87 See, e.g., ‘Three lynched as they inspect land,’ Nation, 23 Oct 2007, 33, by Nation Correspondent; ‘Mob attacks surveyor,’ Nation, 27 Feb 2009, 36; ‘Mob confronts six foreigners,’ Star, 7 Jun 2013, by Brian Otieno, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-123469/mob-confronts-six-foreigners, accessed 7 Jun 2013. 88 See, for an article about just one such report, ‘31 people killed before being tried, says report,’ Nation, 27 Sep 2002, 7, by Nation Correspondent. 89 In what may refer, in part, to such land-related witch-allegation lynchings, each U.S. Department of State Kenya country report on human rights practices for 2003-2012 says something to the effect that the social acceptability of mob violence provided cover for settling land disputes under the guise of “mob justice” (see note 52 for links to each of the country reports concerned). 90 ‘Shock as mob kills 11 over witchcraft in Kisii,’ Standard, Anarchy, 22 May 2008, 1 (cont. on 3), by Standard Team—viz., Robert Nyasato, Winsley Masese, Jane Akinyi and Cyrus Ombati; see also ‘‘Witches’ burnt to death in Kenya,’ BBC News, 21 May 2008, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7413268.stm, accessed 16 Feb 2013; ‘Mobs kill 15 over witchcraft claims,’ Nation, 22 May 2008, 1 (cont. on 2), by Nation Team; ‘Elderly woman lynched in Kisii over witchcraft claims,’ Star, 11 Feb 2011, by Angwenyi Gichana, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article- 72476/elderly-woman-lynched-kisii-over-witchcraft-claims, accessed 25 Feb 2013. 91 ‘Witch hunts claim 250 in four years,’ Star, 5 Feb 2013, by Kerubo Lornah, http://www.the- star.co.ke/news/article-105863/witch-hunts-claim-250-four-years, accessed 19 Feb 2013, with copy-editing of the direct quote. For three articles with the same general charge, whether or not arrived at independently, see ‘Stop killing elderly, Malindi residents told,’ Star, 25 Sep 2012, by Kerubo Lornah (same reporter), http://www.the- star.co.ke/news/article-958/stop-killing-elderly-malindi-residents-told, accessed 20 Feb 2013; ‘Preacher condemns Kilifi killings,’ Star, 12 Jan 2012, by Kerubo Lornah (same reporter), http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article- 34418/preacher-condemns-kilifi-killings, accessed 20 Feb 2013; ‘Stop lynching witches, Shehe tells Mijikenda,’ Star, 13 Jul 2013, by Philip Mbaji, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-127997/stop-lynching-witches-shehe- tells-mijikenda, accessed 15 Jul 2013. 92 For two book-length case studies, see Bernstein (2005) and Downey & Hyser (2011), while for briefer treatment of a number of further cases, see Wells-Barnett (2002:202-06). 93 See, e.g., the absence of any mention of lynching or lynch mobs in ‘President Uhuru Kenyatta moves to address country’s insecurity,’ Standard, 30 Jun 2013, by Cyrus Ombati, http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000087180&story_title=president-uhuru-kenyatta-moves-to-address- country-s-insecurity&pageNo=1, accessed 30 Jun 2013—at the end of a three-month period (April-June 2013) that

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saw Kenya’s Nation, Standard, and Star report, on average, just over 1.4 lynched persons per day (see in Appendix 1, which extends through the end of August 2013 and so reports a different average). See also ‘Iringo cautions on mob justice,’ Star, 11 Jul 2013, by Lydia Ngoolo, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-127700/iringo-cautions- mob-justice, accessed 11 Jul 2013, in which a representative of President Uhuru Kenyatta is reported as calling for the arrest of a murderer in the case concerned but not that of members of the lynch mobs. 94 ‘Shun immorality and pray more, says Uhuru,’ Nation Digital, Briefly (1st of 4), 1 Jul 2013, 10; ‘Respect our culture, Ruto tells US leader,’ Nation, 30 Jun 2013, by Nation Correspondent, http://www.nation.co.ke/News/politics/Ruto-to-Obama-Respect-our-culture/-/1064/1900204/-/13m39bpz/- /index.html, accessed 1 Jul 2013. And see Raper (2003) passim for references to Christian-church reactions to America’s lynchings of 1930 that happened in the South. 95 I do not want to hold Kenya to a standard impossible for any country. I do not doubt that the U.S., assuming it does not resume lynchings in great numbers, will yet continue to commit lynchings occasionally, whether or not they choose to call them so—e.g., that which occurred in June 2007 at Austin, Texas (see ‘Austin crowd kills passenger of car that hit child,’ Houston Chronicle, 21 June 2007, by Polly Ross Hughes, http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Austin-crowd-kills-passenger-of-car-that-hit-child-1672411.php, accessed 24 Aug 2013; ‘Texas mob kills passenger after car strikes child,’ Seattle Times, 21 Jun 2007, by Liz Austin Peterson, http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2003756479_austin21.html, accessed 24 Aug 2013; ‘Mexican press calls killing a “lynching”,’ Uncovering Mexico, Archives, 21 Jun 2007, by Jeremy Schwartz, found 4 Aug 2012 at http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared- gen/blogs/austin/mexico/entries/2007/06/21/_tuesdays_killing_of_an.html/ but no longer available 24 Aug 2013). I believe this Austin mob killing would be called a lynching by Kenya’s media. I would imagine that Walter White, on the basis of the following quote from his Rope and faggot (1969), would also have called it a lynching: “When a truck-driver runs over a child playing in the streets of even so cosmopolitan a city as New York, the tendency of the American is to explode instantly into cries of “Lynch him!” and “String him up!”” (1969:197). 96 ‘UN urges Papua New Guinea to fight sorcery,’ Nation, 12 Apr 2013, by AFP, http://www.nation.co.ke/News/world/UN-urges-Papua-New-Guinea-to-fight-sorcery/-/1068/1746222/-/12rl7xaz/- /index.html, accessed 4 May 2013. 97 ‘UN report puts Kenya among notorious poaching countries,’ Star, 7 May 2013, by Diana Madegwa, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-119363/un-report-puts-kenya-among-notorius-poaching-countries, accessed 7 May 2013. 98 ‘UN condemns Bungoma and Busia killings, urge Govt to act,’ Nation, 10 May 2013, by Anthony Kariuki, http://www.nation.co.ke/News/UN-condemns-Bungoma-and-Busia-killings/-/1056/1848336/-/oe1l7hz/-/index.html, accessed 14 May 2013. In subsequent May 2013 articles on the same killings, I have seen the number killed reported as high as fifteen. 99 ‘Kenyan officials quizzed over torture report,’ Nation (see note 21). 100 ‘Thugs attack three villages, injure 125,’ Standard, 29 Apr 2013, by Robert Wanyonyi, http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000082598&story_title=Kenya-Thugs-attack-three-villages,-injure- 125, accessed 14 May 2013; ‘Suspect lynched after attack on residents,’ Nation, 13 May 2013, by Erick Ngobilo, http://www.nation.co.ke/Counties/Suspect-lynched-after-attack-on-residents/-/1107872/1851078/-/1fl7p0/- /index.html, accessed 14 May 2013; ‘Vigilantes lynch eight suspects over Bungoma killings,’ Standard, 17 May 2013, by Daniel Psirmoi, http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000083778&story_title=eight-lynched-over- bungoma-killings, accessed 17 May 2013; ‘Bungoma families fear killer gangs could strike back with vengeance,’ Standard (see note 79); ‘Shoot-to-kill order issued against gangs,’ Nation, 10 May 2013, by Eric[k] Ngobilo, http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Shoot-to-kill-order--issued-against-gangs/-/1056/1848806/-/v2s41fz/-/index.html, accessed 14 May 2013. 101 See, in this regard, the kind of narrower, not-regarding-lynching-as-torture legislation referred to in ‘UN wants state to enact law to punish acts of torture,’ Nation, 5 Jun 2013, by Nation Reporter, http://www.nation.co.ke/News/UN-wants-State-to-punish-acts-of-torture/-/1056/1873492/-/yeflmkz/-/index.html, accessed 6 Jun 2013. 102 ‘Where lynching still lives,’ Boston Globe (see note 74); see also ‘A Senate apology for history on lynching,’ Washington Post, 14 Jun 2005, by Avis Thomas-Lester, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- dyn/content/article/2005/06/13/AR2005061301720.html, accessed 6 May 2013, as well as ‘S.Res. 39 (109th): Lynching Victims Senate Apology resolution,’ http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/109/sres39/text, accessed 6 May 2013.

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103 See, e.g., ‘Obama fights Nigerian anti-gay bill, threatens to cut off aid,’ Forbes, 9 Dec 2011, http://www.forbes.com/sites/mfonobongnsehe/2011/12/09/obama-fights-nigerian-anti-gay-bill-threatens-to-cut-off- aid/, accessed 21 Feb 2013; ‘Uganda to pass anti-gay law as ‘Christmas gift’,’ BBC News, Africa, 13 Nov 2012, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-20318436, accessed 21 Feb 2013; ‘U.S. presses Uganda on gay bill,’ The Independent (Kampala), 27 Nov 1012, by Sarah Namulondo, http://allafrica.com/stories/201211271404.html, accessed 21 Feb 2013; ‘Nigerian lawmakers vote to outlaw gay marriage,’ Nation, 31 May 2013, by AFP, http://www.nation.co.ke/News/africa/Nigerian-lawmakers-vote-to-outlaw-gay-marriage/-/1066/1867872/- /12uv2dtz/-/index.html, accessed 31 May 2013. 104 Tanzania is one of at least several other African countries with a scandalous modern lynching record, but with President Jikaya Kikwete perhaps singly to be commended for talking about that record publicly (see ‘Graft in line of fire as Tanzania marks Law Day,’ Tanzania Daily News, 7 Feb 2013, by Faustine Kapama, http://allafrica.com/stories/201302070133.html, accessed 8 Mar 2013). 105 See, in this regard, ‘US diplomat reiterates Obama gay rights call to Africa,’ Nation, 12 Jul 2013, by Nation Re- porter, http://www.nation.co.ke/News/US-diplomat-reiterates-Obama-gay-rights-call-to-Africa/-/1056/1912906/- /10apfkbz/-/index.html, accessed 12 Jul 2013, in which Obama, in a press conference quote from his 2013 Africa tour, does not defend his view on gay rights by appeal to the Universal Declaration or anything like it, but rather simply states it as his view—as what he thinks: “My basic view is that regardless of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, when it comes to how the law or state treats you, people should be treated equally. And that’s a principle that I think applies universally.” See also numerous sub-Saharan African opinion pieces like ‘Let Obama take his gay agenda elsewhere,’ Nation, 4 Jul 2013, by Dorothy Kweyu, http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/Let-Obama- take-his-gay-agenda-elsewhere/-/440808/1905052/-/gcfi14/-/index.html, accessed 7 Jul 2013, which begins, “Some- one tell US President Barack Obama that the continent has more pressing issues to tackle than his fixation with gay and lesbian rights.” 106 See, e.g., ‘Purge death penalty from the statutes,’ Nation, Opinion, 25 Oct 2006, 9, by Matti Kääriäinen, in which Finland’s ambassador to Kenya expressed EU concern primarily about Kenya’s failure to abolish her death penalty, with mere asides concerning the country’s lynchings and extra-judicial killings by police. 107 See, e.g., among the chapters in Berg & Wendt, eds. (2011). 108 See, for an example of reported abetting in which some persuaded a mob to lynch suspects rather than take them to the police, ‘Five boys lynched in village blunder,’ Nation, 16 Jul 2000, 1 (cont. on 2), by Oliver Musembi. 109 For photo evidence of spectators watching instances of mob violence, see, e.g., ‘Cornered,’ Nation, 27 Oct 1998, 4, photo by Michael N. Zanguna; ‘A suspect pleads for mercy from a mob …,’ Nation, 28 Oct 1998, 36 (with no main caption or name of the photographer); ‘Mob justice,’ Nation, 9 Jan 2004, 1, photo by Cyrus Macharia. See also ‘They claim vigilante groups are being used to settle old scores,’ Nation, 31 Jul 2006, 4, by Allan Odhiambo and Angwenyi Gichana. For reports of people celebrating lynchings in their aftermath, see, e.g., ‘Villagers lynch 11 robbery suspects,’ Nation, 9 Nov 2008, http://www.nation.co.ke/news/-/1056/489064/-/5fkc1oz/-/index.html, accessed 23 Aug 2013; ‘Police watch as mob kills suspected witches,’ Standard (see note 50); ‘When death knocks on the door and takes all,’ Nation, 30 May 2011, http://www.nation.co.ke/life+style/DN2/Village+terror+/- /957860/1171906/-/86r7j/-/index.html, accessed 23 Aug 2013. In what I am saying here about spectators, I am not judging those who make no attempt to interfere with lynchings for fear of their own lives; I am saying only that such lack of action does nothing toward ending lynchings. 110 See, e.g., in ‘Now, this is my kind of Kenyan,’ Nation, 8 May 2013, http://www.nation.co.ke/Features/Living/Now-this-is-my-kind-of-Kenyan/-/1218/1845402/-/jpmxi1z/-/index.html, accessed 14 May 2013—the reply by shiino to ‘Cast the first stone if you haven’t sinned,’ Nation (see note 9). 111 See, e.g., in relation to a number of other articles for which I provide links in the present paper, ‘Those who have stolen from the public remain free,’ Nation (see note 32), plus the part of the reader comment by Jangerboy that says, “The lack of political will to deal with the endemic corruption in Kenya is just impossible to understand. A petty thief on the street faces justice while the high and mighty … walk scot-free. Whak!”; ‘By worshipping dirty wealth, we are fuelling more graft,’ Standard, 23 Feb 2013, by Henry Munene, http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000077914&story_title=Kenya--By-worshipping-dirty-wealth,-we-are- fuelling-more-graft, accessed 23 Feb 2013; ‘Stop these savage killings of animals,’ Star (see note 15); ‘First Lady Margaret Kenyatta launches campaign to save elephants,’ Standard, 27 Jul 2013, by PSCU, http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000089467&story_title=first-lady-margaret-kenyatta-launches- campaign-to-save-elephants, accessed 21 Aug 2013. Consider also what strikes me as the odd lack of categorical concern for lynchings, from ca. 2002, of the Kenya Human Rights Commission, as evidenced by no mention of mob violence killings by any name in media articles announcing the publication of KHRC annual reports. In this regard,

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and consistent with no further note of KHRC-supplied lynching figures in U.S. State Department country reports after 2001, see ‘Justice or mob violence?,’ Nation, 30 Oct 2000, http://allafrica.com/stories/200010300375.html, stub accessed 8 Mar 2013, which indicates that KHRC quarterly reports contained lynching figures as late as 1999; ‘Rights: Very few gains made in Kenya,’ Nation, Opinion, 10 Dec 2000, by Mugambi Kiai and Willy Mutunga, http://allafrica.com/stories/200012110142.html, stub accessed 8 Mar 2013; ‘31 people killed before being tried, says report,’ Nation (see note 88), which includes no mention of lynchings as a category of human rights violation. 112 See, for examples of people attempting to stop lynchings, whether or not successfully or at the cost of their own lives, ‘They claim vigilante groups are being used to settle old scores,’ Nation (see note 109); ‘Brothers, father lynched in botched robbery,’ Star, 30 Jul 2012, by Jane Mugambi, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article- 8335/brothers-father-lynched-botched-robbery, accessed 26 Feb 2013; ‘Police reservist escapes Malindi mob,’ Star, 13 Sep 2012, by Kerubo Lornah, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-2404/police-reservist-escapes-malindi-mob, accessed 26 Feb 2013. See also, for a Kenyan’s assessment of the risk involved in intervening in a lynching, ‘Pas- sengers taunt man for insisting on safe driving,’ Standard, 1 Sep 2013, http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000092475&story_title=passengers-taunt-man-for-insisting-on-safe- driving&pageNo=1, accessed 2 Sep 2013. 113 See, e.g., ‘Stop killings by witch-hunt mobs,’ Nation, Editorial, 8 Sep 1998, 6; ‘Mob killings of suspects must end,’ Nation, Editorial, allAfrica.com archives, 12 Oct 1998, by Nation Correspondent, http://allafrica.com/stories/199810120029.html, stub accessed 8 Mar 2013; ‘Stop these murders at once,’ Nation, Editorial, 31 Jul 2006, 8; ‘Stop these mob killings,’ Nation (see note 27); ‘We can’t preserve culture by lynching people,’ Nation, Opinion, 6 Nov 2010, by Dr. Lukoye Atwoli, http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/We-cannot- preserve-culture-by-lynching-people-/-/440808/1048030/-/oakag1z/-/index.html, accessed 26 Feb 2013; ‘To end torture, let’s stop lynch mobs too,’ Nation (see note 21); ‘Lynching of ‘witches’ is murder most foul,’ Standard, Letters, 10 Mar 2009, by Marion Ouma, http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=1144008478&story_title=Lynching- of-‘witches’-is-murder-most-foul, accessed 26 Feb 2013; ‘Kenya can be safer without us littering it with bodies,’ Standard, 25 May 2013, by James Gitau, http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000084447&story_title=kenya- can-be-safer-without-us-littering-it-with-bodies, accessed 27 May 2013; ‘Hurrah cheats, extortionists, adulterers, lynch mobs,’ Standard, 3 Jun 2013, by Jenny Luesby, http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000085166&story_title=Kenya-hurrah-cheats-extortionists-adulterers- lynch-mobs, accessed 7 Jun 2013; ‘Justice is universal or it isn’t justice at all,’ Standard, 2 Sep 2013, by J. Luesby, http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/mobile/?articleID=2000092645&story_title=justice-is-universal-or-it-isn-t- justice&pageNo=1, accessed 3 Sep 2013. For three recent examples of more-or-less prominent members of Nigerian civil society decrying lynching in Nigeria, see ‘Nigerian filmmaker starts campaign against mob justice,’ Premium Times, 3 Jul 2013, http://allafrica.com/stories/201307040224.html, accessed 7 Jul 2013; ‘Tinubu’s wife calls for renewed fight against extra-judicial killings,’ Leadership (Abuja), 3 Jul 2013, http://allafrica.com/stories/201307040203.html, accessed 7 Jul 2013; ‘Who will stop the mob?,’ Premium Times, Analysis, 10 Jul 2013, by Betty Abah, http://allafrica.com/stories/201307110252.html?viewall=1, accessed 11 Jul 2013. 114 ‘Robbery bid man seized by pupils, court told,’ Nation, Briefly (2nd of 5), 25 Apr 2008, 32; ‘How I saved a man from being lynched,’ Nation, Young Nation, 14 Jun 2009, 5, by N. Waweru. 115 Wells-Barnett (2002:148-49); the ellipsis replaces the first two of Wells-Barnett’s answers to her own question plus the paragraph break before the start of the third, quoted answer. 116 See, for one British perspective on the likely detrimental effect on foreign investment in Africa of Nairobi’s 1999 change of reputation to that of one of Africa’s most dangerous cities, the bulleted item at the end of ‘Gangsters ter- rorise residents,’ Nation, 23 Jun 1999, 21, by Nation Correspondents. 117 ‘Uhuru woos investors to boost growth,’ Nation, 12 May 2013, by PPS, http://www.nation.co.ke/News/politics/Uhuru-woos-investors-to-boost-growth/-/1064/1850552/-/lhlhemz/- /index.html, accessed 17 May 2013; ‘President Uhuru Kenyatta tells criminals causing insecurity,’ Standard, 20 May 2013, by Wainaina Ndung’u, http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000083996&story_title=surrender- or-face-full-force-of-law-president-uhuru-kenyatta-tells-criminals-causing-insecurity&pageNo=1, accessed 20 May 2013. 118 See, e.g., ‘Awiti worried over insecurity,’ Star, 9 Aug 2013, by Habil Onyango, http://www.the- star.co.ke/news/article-131386/awiti-worried-over-insecurity, accessed 21 Aug 2013. 119 See what was for four months the single comment, by wkithi, on ‘Thug was lynched in Ongata Rongai,’ Star, 3 Apr 2013, by Cynthia Kimola, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-115160/thug-was-lynched-ongata-rongai, accessed 1 Aug 2013an April 2013. The initial two sentences of the three-sentence comment, copy-edited, are as fol-

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lows: “The word ‘lynched’ is so 1950’s Jim Crow USA and it described a situation where one race [the white] tried to exterminate the other [the black]. In this case [of the thug lynched in Ongata Rongai, Kenya], it’s one race [the black] trying to exterminate the vermin among them so it cannot be lynching.” The 1950s, ironically, by Tuskegee Institute figures, saw the first years of recorded U.S. lynching history with no lynchings—1952-1954, 1956, and 1958—and the decade’s total number, at eight, was less than one per year. 120 ‘Vision 2030 relies heavily on science but forgets the power of witchcraft,’ Nation, 13 May 2011, by Peter Mwaura, http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/Vision-2030-relies-heavily-on-science-/-/440808/1161922/- /ji0in1z/-/index.html, accessed 18 Mar 2013, without the paragraph breaks of the original. And see, in the same regard and concerning the closely-related political sphere, ‘Our elections are incomplete without witchcraft,’ Stand- ard, 26 May 2013, by Peter Wanyonyi, http://standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000084546&story_title=our- elections-are-incomplete-without-witchcraft, accessed 29 Jun 2013. 121 Wells-Barnett (2002:55), without the paragraph break of the original and with the whole of Frederick Douglass’s letter used as the preface to ‘A red record’ (1895). 122 ‘Suspect set ablaze,’ Nation Digital, 21 Aug 2013, 6, photo by Jimson Ndung’u. 123 ‘Robber lynched in Embu,’ Star, 3 Jun 2013, by Reuben Githinji, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article- 122797/robber-lynched-embu, accessed 5 Jun 2013; ‘Man lynched for stealing spoons,’ Standard, Crazy World, 4 Jun 2013, by Sammy Jakaa, http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/entertainment/pulse/77/crazy-world/509/man-lynched- for-stealing-spoons, accessed 5 Jun 2013, in which, “The incident shocked passersby as they helplessly watched livid residents descend on the suspected thief [with] stones and rungus”; ‘Migori police probe lynching of DoD worker,’ Star, 16 Aug 2013, by Manuel Odeny, http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-132298/migori-police-probe- lynching-dod-worker, accessed 21 Aug 2013. Each of these articles is referenced in Appendix 1, which contains abundant evidence that lynchings continue unabated in Kenya’s present. 124 ‘Mob justice killings on the rise,’ Star, 19 Aug 2013, by Maureen Waruinge, http://www.the- star.co.ke/news/article-132457/mob-justice-killings-rise, accessed 26 Aug 2013, copy-edited. I may simply have missed it, but I did not find a report of this same news by August 26 searches of the online versions of the Nation or Standard. When I checked on the Star story again the morning of September 1 (UTC-8:45, Central Time, U.S.), there had been no comments on the 335 mob justice killings over seven months. Several days earlier, on August 27, there was no mention of mob justice killings in a Standard article about a crisis meeting of top Nairobi cops concerning city crime levels, with an increase in vehicle hijackings at the top of the meeting’s agenda (see ‘Top cops hold crisis meeting after crime rise,’ Standard, 27 Aug 2013, by Cyrus Ombati, http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000092119&story_title=top-cops-hold-crisis-meeting-after-crime- rise&pageNo=1, accessed 27 Aug 2013. On a different yet related subject, I do not believe that the Kenya Police have yet, by the end of August 2013, issued their annual crime report for 2012 with that year’s number of mob justice killings. 125 ‘We must organize a national day of shame,’ Nation, Opinion, 22 Jun 2012, by Gabriel Dolan, http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/We-must-organise-a-national-day-of-shame--/-/440808/1433612/-/7aenlqz/- /index.html, accessed 23 Feb 2013. Dolan is an Irish priest of St. Patrick’s Missionary Society, also known as the Kiltegan Fathers. 126 ‘Security team alarmed by mob lynchings,’ Nation, 13 Feb 2008, 3, by Charles Wanyoro. 127 I commend others as well, whether or not they are print media and whatever their nationalities, for speaking out against lynchings in Kenya—e.g., KenyaForum, outstandingly (see ‘Justice and the price paid,’ KenyaForum, 20 Jan 2011, http://www.kenyaforum.net/?p=212, accessed 26 Aug 2013; ‘Kenya’s “strange fruit” and the impunity of the mob…,’ KenyaForum, 18 Aug 2011, http://www.kenyaforum.net/?p=466, accessed 26 Aug 2013; ‘Tis the season to be jolly, la, la, la, lah, la, la, la, lah, plus a few lynchings while slinging taxpayers[’] money at advertising, la, la, la, lah, la, la, la, lah…,’ KenyaForum, 29 Dec 2011, http://www.kenyaforum.net/?p=2869, accessed 26 Aug 2013; ‘Lynchings in Kenya: Are we all guilty of the mob mentality?,’ KenyaForum, 15 May 2012, http://www.kenyaforum.net/?p=4210, accessed 26 Aug 2013). 128 ‘Vigilantes lynch eight suspects over Bungoma killings,’ Standard (see note 100). 129 For an example of a lynching reported only by a photo-with-caption, see ‘Suspect set ablaze,’ Nation Digital (see note 122). The mere photo-with-caption concerned is still to me a priceless datum on lynchings in modern Kenya.