The Ethics of Jungle Justice

On January 29th, 2025, Kenyan creator Azuka Bellah captured attention with her unconventional approach to exposing street crime. Rather than typical entertainment content, Bellah conducts social experiments that reveal the safety conditions of African streets. 

Her method is simple: seated in the back of a car with tinted windows, she places her phone near the rolled-down window, waiting to see if anyone attempts to steal it. When would-be thieves take the bait, she responds with a taser, capturing their reactions on camera. Despite having uploaded only seven videos, her channel has amassed over half a million views. Her alleged mission statement is “to educate, entertain, and explore streets all over the world, exposing hidden and untold stories about different communities.”

What began as a social media experiment took a tragic turn when one of Bellah’s videos led to a fatal instance of mob justice. In the video,  a man is seen to have successfully snatched her phone, ensuing in a chase that ended not just in his capture, but allegedly in his death by “necklacing”—the brutal practice of forcing a burning tire around someone’s neck. While the actual killing isn’t shown in the video, Bellah’s thumbnail reportedly displays the gruesome outcome, using it as clickbait to drive subscriptions.

This incident raises serious ethical concerns about the nature of her content. While theft is undoubtedly criminal, baiting potential thieves in regions prone to violent vigilante justice creates a setup with foreseeable consequences. In parts of West Africa, where formal law enforcement is often slow to respond or ineffective, communities frequently resort to jungle justice—public executions are carried out without due process.

However, the severity of these extrajudicial killings reveals a deeper breakdown of civil society. Frustration with weak justice systems is understandable, but mob violence is not the solution. The reality of this incident forces difficult questions about justice, inequality, and human rights. While nations like Kazakhstan, Portugal, and Denmark have abolished capital punishment entirely, ordinary citizens in Sub-Saharan Africa continue to act as judge, jury, and executioner. 

The roots of this issue lie in systemic inequality and generational poverty. While not all thieves steal out of necessity, many are driven by desperation. Extreme poverty forces impossible choices, and though theft cannot be excused, it must be understood within this broader context.

Consider this: If your own family member were burned alive for allegedly stealing a phone, would you accept it as justice? Now contrast this with Nigeria’s political elite, who systematically plunder public resources meant for national development. These powerful figures, whose corruption condemns millions to poverty, face no such brutal retribution. Instead, they remain untouchable, shielded by wealth and influence. This exposes the hypocrisy of vigilante justice. If mob killings were truly about justice, wouldn’t they target those who commit the greatest harm? Instead, they disproportionately punish the poorest and most vulnerable, often without proof of guilt.

The path to a more just society cannot be paved with cycles of violence. When crime meets brutal murder, injustice deepens, trauma spreads, and our collective humanity erodes. Martin Luther King Jr. put it best: “In spite of temporary victories, violence never brings permanent peace.” Addressing societal issues through brutality only perpetuates a cycle of bloodshed, leaving communities more fractured and less secure than before.

As for Azuka Bellah, her claim of creating “educational” content rings hollow when her work contributes to harm. What would be truly educational is content that examines and addresses the root causes of street crime. Until then, her videos remain a troubling example of how the pursuit of social media fame can have devastating consequences.