By Habil Onyango
Businesses across the country often suffer massive financial losses after being targeted, looted and vandalised by goons and criminal elements, mostly during demonstrations and other criminal attacks.
Early this month, severe business paralysis and millions of shillings in financial losses were reported following a wave of violence and looting triggered by the high-profile arrest of suspected gang coordinator Kassim Sebo Abdi, alias Commander, in Homa Bay.
During the incident, businesses were paralysed, and criminal elements hijacked the demonstrations following the arrest, breaking into multiple retail shops and business premises and stealing goods valued at millions of shillings.
However, Principal Secretary for Interior Dr Raymond Omollo has issued a stern warning to the Homa Bay goons that the Government will not relent in its mission to weed out such criminal elements in the county.
Omollo has maintained that the crackdown on criminal gang groups in Homa Bay will continue to ensure that further losses to the business community come to an end.
Speaking in North Kabwoch Ward, Ndhiwa Constituency, on Saturday, 17 October 2026, during a consultative meeting with traders, Omollo warned youth affiliated with criminal groups that their days were numbered, as security agencies were after them to restore order in the county.
Omollo called on young people to stop using unemployment to advance their criminal activities by looting businesses and intimidating traders in the markets.
“I want to issue a stern warning to criminal elements who are interfering with our business community and are taking advantage by intimidating them, making it difficult to operate either at night or during the day, that through agencies we are coming for you,” he said.
“The Government has really promoted businesses in Homa Bay through the initiation of various development projects, and I want to appeal to our youths, just as I have done before, not to take advantage of joblessness to engage in criminal activities,” Omollo said.
“We will not allow anyone, after taking his bhang or alcohol and becoming intoxicated, to start interfering with our business people. This will not happen,” he said.
“Our security team will not relent in the war against goons who are intimidating traders and robbing them of their property,” he added.
Omollo stated that suspected criminal elements would not be spared in the ongoing intensified crackdown on goons who interfere with the business community.
Of late, police in Homa Bay have intensified patrols following the arrest of Abdi alongside 40 other suspected goons who allegedly looted several businesses within the Central Business District (CBD) on the night of 9 October 2026.
Beyond the theft of stock, rioters lit bonfires using tyres, blocked major transit roads and destroyed public infrastructure such as streetlights. However, police successfully recovered crude weapons, including pangas, as well as a variety of stolen items during the ongoing crackdown.
He urged them to venture into other income-generating activities for sustainable livelihoods instead of engaging in criminal activities.
“I want to tell our youths to engage in beneficial activities. Let us engage one another in a constructive manner and see how we can help our youths get employment and also assist those who want to go back to school to do so instead of engaging in criminal activities,” he said.
“We must have a conversation with our young people who, for one reason or another, are engaged in criminal activities and tell them that crime does not pay and that we must find a way to engage in meaningful activities to earn a living,” he added.
Homa Bay County Commissioner Ronald Mwiwawi assured traders of heightened security, warning that no criminal individual would be allowed to interfere with other people’s businesses.
According to Mwiwawi, the security team would ensure that the business community operated in a very safe environment by providing adequate security during the day and night.
“I want to commit to you that I will ensure that you are safe and can do your business even for 24 hours by providing the necessary security so that you can make money and build wealth to enable you to take your children to school and promote one generation after another.
“This is my commitment to you, and I will do it without fear or favour,” the Commissioner assured the business community, whose members were drawn from various sectors across Homa Bay.
Mwiwawi revealed that a nation’s wealth is determined by the strength of its people, saying that when a country has a strong business community, it is assured of a wealthy and healthy nation.
“That is why the Government created a special kitty to cater for businesses through co-operatives and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), and one indicator that it is growing is when you start seeing a county coming up, which shows a good circulation of money,” he noted.
“We want to remove Homa Bay from the bottom list of less developed counties in Kenya and move it to the top. We want to see Homa Bay grow and become the Kiambu of the Nyanza region,” he said.
During the chaos that took place at Raila Odinga Stadium on 3 October 2026, Osogo alleged that she cheated death by a whisker after being attacked by the organised gang.
Arrest of the Homa Bay Gang Leader
Abdi, who is also the ODM Homa Bay County youth leader, was arrested in a dramatic confrontation between his team and the police at the Homa Bay Bus Stage.
Abdi’s arrest was conducted by officers from Homa Bay Police Station and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) from Homa Bay Sub-County, under the command of County Commander Lawrence Koilem.
The officers were executing a warrant issued by the Law Courts on 14 August 2026, following an alleged assault causing actual bodily harm, contrary to Section 251 of the Penal Code.
The officers had to shoot into the air to disperse rowdy men who tried to obstruct the police as they arrested Abdi and seven others.
They are Achiando Victor Odhiambo (26), Isaac Masika Muliro (30), Oyege Moses Geoffrey (27), Geoffrey Njore (25), Odhiambo Wesley Arnold (26), Joseph Kobila (28) and Alfred Aliwa (26).
Several shops, including a supermarket’s gas store, were looted during the night protests.
Abdi has been labelled by the police as a “chief goon” and has been the target of a manhunt following deadly violence and property destruction during the Linda Mwananchi political rally in Homa Bay on 16 August 2026.
He had previously defied DCI summons to appear at the Homa Bay County Headquarters and went underground before his arrest on Thursday.
The violence against Siaya Governor James Orengo, Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna and Babu Owino, the MP for Embakasi East, in a convoy led to the loss of life, including that of a police officer.
Many other people were left with severe injuries; several vehicles were torched, and property estimated to be worth millions of shillings was also destroyed.
The youth leader, who has been on the police radar for some time, is said to be connected to some of the powerful politicians in the county.
In a separate incident, the Homa Bay County Woman Representative was attacked at Raila Odinga Stadium during a Jua Kali artisans’ empowerment project, where machines and other equipment were stolen while others were vandalised.
