Ex-prisoners, illegal weapons and fear of the Kenyan police

As Kenya battles rising violent crime, BBC Africa Eye follows a former criminal who tries to persuade men to hand in their illegal firearms, one gun at a time.

“The worst thing I ever did was kill. I killed a man,” says the young man after agreeing to be filmed on condition of anonymity.

“I didn’t feel anything, because I was drugged. I felt like I had killed a fly.

Samuel, not his real name, is in Kisumu, on the shores of Lake Victoria in western Kenya, to meet King Kafu, an ex-convict who now helps people escape crime.

He is visibly nervous. He has an AK47 in a hidden location which he now wants to hand over to the police.

When asked why, he replied: “A day will come when my family will have nothing to eat. They will end up getting hurt.

“If I go out having fun and get shot, no one will be there to take care of my family. So I decided, from the bottom of my heart, to let me give this thing back.

Figures from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics show that violent robberies increased by almost 20% last year.

Illegal firearms are smuggled into the country across its porous borders, making civilian gun ownership in Kenya unrivaled in East Africa, according to the Institute for Security Studies.

Latest figures from the Small Arms Survey, which tracks global arms trends, suggest there are some 750,000 firearms in the hands of civilians in Kenya. That's more than the army and police combined.

Kafu acts as an intermediary between people who want to surrender their weapons and the police.

He was 15 when he got into crime. It started with grabbing people's bags and then moved on to armed robberies.

In 2003, he was sentenced to four years in prison for robbery.

Samuel contacted him on Instagram to ask for help. Kafu spoke to local police in Kisumu and they agreed to accept Samuel's gun, promising that he would not be investigated under a well-established amnesty program.

But when it was time to find the AK47, Samuel did not show up.

Kafu, now 40, is a presenter on Ghetto Radio, a station popular with young people in the slums of the capital, Nairobi, and uses his platform to speak out against gun violence.

“Upon my release, I discovered that many of my friends involved in crimes had met tragic ends, most of them dying because of their criminal lifestyle,” he says.

This is what led him to change his life.

“No one is born a thief. But even if young people don't have a job, we tell them that delinquency is not good. People should return their illegal guns to the government,” he says.

Over the past 20 years, the Kenyan government has used amnesties to control gun crime, promising immunity to those who surrender their weapons.

Thousands of weapons have been handed over to the authorities. But this represents only a tiny fraction of the illegal firearms in circulation.

A criminal told BBC Africa Eye that acquiring a gun in Kenya was easy. He said he could buy one for 40,000 Kenyan shillings ($300; ​​£240).

Kafu says people willing to hand over their illegal firearms to authorities fear becoming a target themselves.

The police have been accused of being involved in extrajudicial killings. Kenyan charity Missing Voices says more than 800 people have died at the hands of police in the past five years. The majority of them were poor young men.

In Nairobi, BBC Africa Eye accompanies Kafu to meet another man, whom we call John, ready to surrender his weapon.

“I’m ready to give it back. You're going to kill someone. You will spend the money you receive within three months, but you will have shed someone's blood. You hurt someone and found yourself guilty. This life is a problem.

John's biggest fear when speaking to the police was that something would happen to him.

He describes what happened to a friend who confided to a community elder that he wanted to return two firearms. He was arrested by the police and then found in a morgue a week later.

“The problem is knowing who to tell it to and how to deliver it,” he says.

There are widespread allegations that Kenyan police recruit and sell guns and ammunition to criminals. BBC Africa Eye reported this claim to the police, but they did not respond.

Kafu called the local police chief to reassure the man of his safety and a few days later they went to the police station with the weapon.

The officer checked the serial number on the gun and it was marked KP, short for Kenya Police.

At a police press conference announcing the return of the weapon, Kafu made a public statement to ensure the police reiterated their commitment to keeping these men safe.

“I want the government to be clear with young people. When they return these things, will they be gone or taken over? I ask the government to cooperate. These young people want to be shown some love.

It won't be enough to end violent gun crime in Kenya, but Kafu says it's a start. Criminals trust him, he said, and hope he can encourage more people to turn in their guns without fear of reprisal.

“We are trying to fight for these young people,” Kafu says.

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