When the law turns to criminals: John Kiriamiti returns with The Abduction Squad

Story by Maurice Momanyi

What happens when the people entrusted with enforcing the law decide that breaking it is the only way to get results?

That question sits at the heart of Kenyan author John Kiriamiti’s latest crime novel, The Abduction Squad, which explores the uneasy space between justice, criminality and institutional power.

The novel, unveiled during the ongoing Nairobi International Book Fair at Sarit Expo Centre, marks Kiriamiti’s return to fiction more than a decade after his last published work and comes more than four decades after the publication of his debut, My Life in Crime.

Published by East African Educational Publishers (EAEP) under its Spear Books imprint, the novel is set in the fictional Republic of Magendo and follows Tom Baraza, a newly appointed Police Commissioner confronted with an extraordinary challenge following the unexpected death of his predecessor.

Instead of relying entirely on conventional policing methods, Baraza takes an unorthodox route. He assembles a covert team made up of convicted criminals, selecting each member for a particular skill, and gives them an assignment on behalf of the institution responsible for upholding the law.

The decision creates the central tension of the story: can an institution preserve justice while deliberately employing people who have operated outside the law?

Kiriamiti said the novel uses that tension to examine the choices people make when established systems appear inadequate.

“What happens when people who have lived outside the law are brought together and given a task in the name of the very institutions meant to uphold the law?” he said.

The Abduction Squad therefore moves beyond the conventional crime narrative of criminals versus police. Instead, it turns the spotlight on the institutions themselves, questioning what can happen when those in authority adopt the methods of the people they are supposed to pursue.

Through the fictional Republic of Magendo, Kiriamiti explores questions of accountability, loyalty, power and the consequences of crossing institutional boundaries without directly anchoring the story to a particular real-world government or political system.

The novel represents a shift in emphasis from some of Kiriamiti’s earlier work, which drew heavily on the experiences of criminals and the world of crime. His published works include My Life in Crime, My Life with a Criminal, The Sinister Trophy, Son of Fate and My Life in Prison.

With his latest book, the author turns greater attention to those on the other side of the law, asking what happens when the machinery of law enforcement itself begins to blur the distinction between lawful authority and criminal conduct.

For EAEP, the publication also marks a continuation of a relationship with Kiriamiti that stretches back more than 40 years, when the publisher released his debut.

EAEP Managing Director and CEO Kiarie Kamau said the latest novel continues Kiriamiti’s engagement with crime while opening up questions about power and institutional authority.

“John Kiriamiti has been part of EAEP’s journey for more than four decades, and The Abduction Squad represents an important continuation of that relationship,” Kamau said.

He said the novel provides readers with a fictional setting through which to consider the consequences of crossing the boundaries between lawful enforcement and criminality.

For Kiriamiti, the return to fiction is not simply a return to familiar territory. The Abduction Squad uses the crime genre to ask a broader question about the institutions created to protect society: what happens when the pursuit of justice begins to depend on methods that challenge the very rules those institutions are expected to defend?

The book is Kiriamiti’s sixth published work and adds a new chapter to a writing career that began more than 40 years ago.