A number of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) students live in fear of being next targeted by a criminal gang in Juja after their colleague Tim Sydney Aomba was in May stabbed to death while heading to his house near the university. Concurrently, they accuse the institution's alumni living in the town of aiding crime against them.
It is a weekend and a private company contracted to help guard the institution has its officers supposedly on duty at the institution's entry points. At the main gate, a security guard on the left side kicks a brown ball to his colleague on the opposite side. The guard responds in delight and kicks it back while people walk in and out of the institution and this continues for some minutes.
On the previous day, Kenyans.co.ke had easily gone past the guards on duty during a check on the institution's prudence as students decry insecurity. There were no checks whatsoever at the main gate and everyone could walk in and out with their luggage.
Police officers in Juja however feel enough has been done to secure the town, guaranteeing the students' security within the the university and its environs. Juja OCPD Patrick Manyasi holds that the town does not have an organized ring of criminals that are targeting students, reiterating that the police have ensured the area remains secured.
He further dismissed reports of bobaboda riders ferrying students to thugs lying in wait and later sharing in the loot.
[caption caption="Tim Sydney "]
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The area DCIO in a telephone interview stated that one of the suspects in the Tim Sidney Aomba's stabbing incident is in police custody while they are pursuing his accomplice.
An officer at a gate closed by the university over security concerns warned us not to walk past a thicket covered area warning it is not safe. The officer in a random comment said; "Do not use that route, it is not safe. Soon we will take down two criminal elements on our radar. That is why were are here to keep watch."
The bushy fence around the closed gate facing the dreaded Gachororo area has broken sections of the barbed wire and mesh that show occasional movement in and out of the university through the edges.
Attacks on students have been linked to outsiders jumping over the fence into the university and Kenyans.co.ke could not rule out the possibility of students being part of those trespassing to gain access to learning facilities as they admit being unhappy about the closure of the gate.
"There are no gangs or crime hot-spots in Juja or around the university. What students need to realize is that it is not safe to walk alone late in the night not just in Juja but everywhere else. We always advice them to be in groups even though we have police officers on the watch during the day and at night," Mr Manyasi told Kenyans.co.ke during the weekend.
The students say Gachororo area has informal settlements that host a network of thugs that target them at night. Another area dubbed Mathare close to where Tony was attacked is also feared to be unsafe for the students given we established most streets in Juja lack street lights despite the large population with a beehive of activities running late into the night.
[caption caption="JKUAT main campus' Gate A"]
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"We spend most of the time in studio doing architectural artwork and this means we work until late in the night. While heading to our hostels, we find people wait for us on the road side.Last semester I was robbed off my phone and a friend lost his laptop with other items near Gachororo," claims Clinton, a student living adjacent in Gachororo.
They are forced to accompany their female colleagues all the way into their hostels as a group to ensure they are safe whenever they are late from practical lab sessions. Juja town has affordable housing and a number of JKUAT students after graduating retain their hostels while seeking to be engaged in active employment since the area is only Sh50 away from Nairobi CBD,
A number of these former students, are seen in the town and havebeen linked to the upsurge in crime.
"They claim they are doing business here but we do not see what exact ventures they are involved in as some are always at the 'Containers' next to the University main gate drinking. At times they move around the university and since they know every corner here, we can't be surprised if they are found helping thugs break into our rooms," lamented a student leader who did not what to be named, for fear of apprehension.
Concerns over the possible involvement of former students in theft cases have been raised during past meetings with the institution's administration and the security bosses but the area DCIO and OCPD Mr Manyasi denied having specific individual students or former students nabbed in connection to robberies or student attacks.
The University's chief security officer Mr Francis Njeru says there were only a few insecurity incidences reported and most emerged from privately owned hostels outside the university. He says his office has no jurisdiction on security of areas where students individually seek accommodation.
