Lynching in Kenya
肯尼亚的私刑

A routine crime
犯罪已习以为常

Jun 18th 2009 | NAIROBI
From The Economist print edition

Mob justice is alarmingly common but few seem to mind
暴民的裁决普遍到骇人听闻，但好像没几个人在意

A LYNCHING took place recently outside an ironmonger’s shop in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital. It was close to one of the city’s fancier shopping centres, early in the morning, with commuters streaming down the road on foot. A man had his mobile phone stolen but managed to lay a hand on the thief just long enough for the crowd to close in. His two accomplices waded in to rescue their man but the mob engulfed them. Stones rained down. Boulders crushed their heads and chests. Then the crowd moved on, became commuters once more, and the police removed three bodies.

近日，在肯尼亚首都内罗毕一家五金商店外，发生了一场私刑。该商店地处城市繁华的购物中心，当时正值大清早，上下班的人川流不息。一人的手机被偷，但他一只手托住了贼，正好让人群将贼围住。贼的两个同伙见状赶忙插手营救，但是暴民把他们仨都吞没了。石块如雨点般落下。巨大的石块砸碎了他们的脑袋和胸膛。之后，人群若无其事地继续前行，赶路上班去了。警察拖走了三具尸体。

Nobody knows how many such lynchings happen in Kenya every year. What is certain is that they are commonplace. Some MPs worry that violence is on the rise as more people lack jobs and young men are frustrated. The lack of statistics is itself telling. Kenya’s police chief, Mohammed Ali, says his force strongly discourages vigilantes from taking the law into their own hands and often arrests them. Yet the police are invariably unable or unwilling to intervene against a large mob. Human-rights groups lack the resources to investigate or even record more than a handful of lynchings. The families of those killed often fail to lodge a complaint out of shame or because they do not have enough money to recover the bodies from the mortuary to bury them.

没人知道肯尼亚每年有多少私刑发生。能确定的是这些私刑都已不足为奇。一些国会议员担心随着越来越多的人失去工作﹑年轻人灰心丧气，暴力事件会越来越多。数据的匮乏，这本身就能说明问题。肯尼亚警察局长穆罕默德﹒阿里说他的部队强烈建议治安员依法办事，逮捕不法分子。然而，自始至终，警察要么是没有能力，要么是不想同大群暴民做对。人权组织也没有充足的资料进行调查，甚至连私刑的记录都少得可怜。死者家属由于羞愧，或是无经济实力将尸体从停尸房赎回安葬，经常不会提起控诉。

Petty criminals are often lynched in the countryside too. In central Kenya’s Kikuyu heartland, some 23 youths were recently killed by vigilantes on suspicion of being members of an outlawed and feared sect known as the Mungiki, who mix Kikuyu tribalism with organised crime. The police say the Mungiki killed 29 villagers in retaliation. A former justice minister, Martha Karua, who castigates the police, says the figure is higher.

小偷小摸的罪犯经常就在乡间处决了。在肯尼亚中部吉库尤族聚居地，警方怀疑约有23名青年为一非法恐怖帮派蒙吉基成员，并将他们处死，该组织将吉库尤部落文化同有组织的犯罪绑在一起。警方称，蒙吉基出于报复，杀害了29名村民。一位前司法部长，玛莎﹒卡鲁阿严斥了警方，宣称实际数字比这还要高。

Fear of the mob makes fringe groups, including homosexuals and the disabled, wary of pressing their rights, particularly in villages. The trick, they say wryly, is to argue their case without annoying too many people and drawing a crowd.

政府害怕暴民变成边缘人群，如同性恋﹑残疾人，所以凡事小心翼翼，不压榨他们的权利，尤其对村民。政府承认，这种政策也是迫于无奈，目的是既不招摇也不冒犯太多人地阐明立场。

Witch hunts, which often end in the death of old women, are still common too. If no one intervenes, the hunts can be lethal. In an attack earlier this year in western Kenya’s Kisii district, five old people were dragged out of their homes and burned alive. Human-rights groups say several people are killed on suspicion of witchcraft every month in Kisii alone.

搜捕巫师，这种现象仍然十分普遍，最后经常是以老年妇人的死结束。倘若无人干涉，搜捕巫师通常可以置人死地。今年早些时候，在肯尼亚西部基夕地区的一次搜捕中，五位老人被拖出家门，活活烧死。人权组织说，单单在基夕地区，每月都会有几位老人遭疑与巫术有关，被杀害。

Such hunts persist across Africa. Traditional healers often finger alleged witches, whom the mob may then kill. Bouts of hysteria, sometimes presaged by apparently magical occurrences, can lead to hundreds of deaths. Tanzania’s government reckons that every year several hundred of its people are lynched on suspicion of witchcraft.

这种搜捕在非洲仍然存在。传统的郎中大夫经常指摘巫师作崇，之后巫师就会被暴民杀害。看起来奇异的事件，有时使人变得躁动狂热，这可以造成数百人死亡。坦桑尼亚政府估计每年有数百坦桑尼亚人被怀疑与巫术有关，遭私刑处死