Owning AK-47 soon to be a hanging offence

Owners of illegal guns and police officers who rent their firearms to criminals could soon face the death penalty.

Law enforcement agencies are pushing for tighter gun control and have proposed a raft of tough measures to be discussed by the Cabinet soon.

These include an amendment to the Firearms Act, the law governing the legal ownership of guns.

According to the latest proposals contained in the National Policy on Small Arms and Light Weapons, no one will be allowed to own an AK-47 rifle, a G3 or “any automatic or semi-automatic self-loading military assault rifle of any other calibre”.

Anyone found guilty of having one will be hanged. The policy is a follow-up of a letter to the Attorney General dated February 12, 2007. The letter from the then Police Commissioner, Maj-Gen Hussein Ali, had proposed that the death sentence be imposed on criminals with illegal firearms and civilians who misuse licensed guns.

The AG is yet to act on the recommendations. He instead proposed that the death sentence be reduced to life imprisonment.

Another memorandum from the Commissioner of Police to the Attorney General has now recommended that imposing the maximum penalty for gun crime is the only way to curb the misuse of weapons, which have been blamed for the high crime rate and banditry in parts of the country.

It also proposes that anyone who handles a gun while drunk be jailed for five years without the option of a fine. Under the current laws, such offenders are jailed for a year or fined Sh20,000.

The proposals were prepared by the National Steering Committee on Peace Building and Conflict Management in the Office of the President and a unit on the control of the proliferation of small and light weapons in the police force.

The memorandum has been submitted afresh to Internal Security minister George Saitoti in the hope that it will be discussed by the Cabinet.

Last week, Kenya’s top commanders from the military, the intelligence services and Police Force held an unprecedented meeting at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies to discuss the security problems facing the nation.

Among the issues discussed were disarmament and conflict resolution particularly in the North Rift and Upper Eastern regions, which have been rocked by perennial banditry and cattle rustling attacks. The latest such attack, in Laikipia North, led to the death of 32 people last month.

A senior security official, who declined to be named discussing pending Cabinet business, on Tuesday told the Nation: “What Kofi Annan is attempting to address is no small matter because we are sitting on a time bomb. The use of guns is no longer just for criminal purposes, but a political tool.”

Top on the minds of the authors of the memorandum was the concern that illegal weapons could be used in election-related violence in 2012.

In 2008, 1,133 people were killed in post-election chaos, sparking fears that the violence could be worse in 2012.