Is Mob Justice Really Justified?

“Until the great mass of the people shall be filled with the sense of responsibility for each other's welfare, social justice can never be attained.” Helen Keller

Sitting on the couch while watching your best T.V programme, is something many would do frequently…On this particular day it wasn’t any different for me, but it isn’t long when I am suddenly interrupted by an unusual noise from outside. A scream, that carries with it pain, distress, torture, name it..!

Rushing to the window just to get a glimpse of what could be happening, am confronted by an unpleasant scene, a man (who is claimed to be an intruder) being frog marched by  a group of people led by two watchmen, with blood oozing all over his body …

Curious to know what crime he has committed, I dash outside to enquire from one of the witnesses only to find out that he had stolen somebody’s T.V in the famous Kibera slums, and had run all the way to South-C Estate from an angry mob baying for his blood…

I believe in his mind he had thought this could be the safest place in which he could hide, only to be confronted by the same situation which he was avoiding, after being discovered by area residents.

What is the work of the Police in this case? An Asian woman comes and pleads with the Police to save this man from the angry mob, but guess what? The Policemen stand staring like zombies, and one would think that mob justice is lawful…

As I write this note, this man is no more; he was brutally stoned to death. Is this what we call justice? Are the people who threw stones any better than this man? Don’t they qualify to be called murderers..? Just like this man, aren’t they law breakers too!

I don’t support any kind of crime whatsoever, but don’t you think those suspected of wrong doing deserve a hearing? In my point of view it is not good for mobs to beat who so ever is suspected to be a thief. Why? Because in this country there are laws that govern us the people, so even if somebody steals, the fellow must be taken to the law court for such a person to be punished accordingly.

There is no justification for a group of people taking the law into their own hands because in this country there are due processes for resolving issues, and anybody who is alleged to have committed a crime must be given the opportunity to defend him or herself and allow the due process to take its course. Is it that we are losing our morals and values, or have we just let anger take the better part of us?

This is just my point of view, what do you think?

Is mob justice really justified?

Give it a thought …

By:

Dorcas Waringa

19th May, 2011