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| Police officers trying to arrest one of the gang member. |
Background.
Gaza is a youthful criminal group in kayole which has terrorized everyone from the eldest to the youngest. It is known for taking advantage of the innocent children and recruiting the school dropouts.They train the recruits to be rebellious to their parents and teachers and afterwards they must take a vow. The new recruits are then used to carry out criminal activities under the watchful guidance of its highly structured chain of command whose real leaders are unknown, even to some of its members.Gang members are given assurance of protection by their leaders. In return, they share the loot with the gang’s honchos.Membership qualifications include being able to keep secrets.
Gaza takes its name from Portmore, a shanty town in Jamaica that is said to be controlled by a gang with a similar name that steals and kills at will under the command of Jamaican dancehall artiste Adjija Palmer Vybez Kartel who is currently facing trial in connection with two murders, illegal possession of firearms and armed robbery.Though he has spent the last three years in prison, his music is hugely popular and has a huge influence among the youth.The common denominator among Kayole’s Gaza is their love of dancehall music — a music genre originating in Jamaica that is associated with violence, bhang smoking, gang warfare, nudity and vulgarity that has become a fad among the youth in the area.
Origin.
When
the government launched a crackdown on Mungiki-is said to have had more than
a million members, an elaborate tax collection machinery and a kangaroo
court system- most of its members
went underground. Some were shot dead in confrontations with police or
arraigned in court.The resulting vacuum led to
the rise of Gaza. It’s an offshoot of the Mungiki created last year by
remnants of the sect, but it does not have an ethnic dimension like its
predecessor.
Unlike the Mungiki,
whose members often wore dreadlocks, it is hard to distinguish members
of the gang from other youths by their appearance, although most prefer
wearing caps facing backwards, carry concealed knives at their waists
and have identification tattoos on their upper left arms usually inked
when they are being oathed in a location that is a closely guarded
secret in Dandora.The tattoos are drawn with a hot wire and daubed with an ink solution.
Gang activities.