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Arrests add fuel to Mungiki fire, former leader says
Former Mungiki leader says continued harassment and detention of the sect’s followers will only strengthen the “movement”.
Pastor Ndura Waruinge, who says he abandoned Mungiki after a judge pardoned him and warned him against any illegal activities, says the sect is the creation of social and economic crises.
Although police believe last week’s arrest of a man believed to be the leader of the proscribed sect may help to solve the mystery surrounding it, Waruinge says harassment will only swell Mungiki ranks.
Maina Njenga and some sect regional leaders were arrested at a house in Ngong. Police hoped that their arrest would reduce the sect’s activities, some of which have been described as “dangerous”.
Nairobi area police operations boss Julius Ndegwa, who is leading a team cracking down on the sect, says the Mungiki leadership was feared and respected among its adherents and putting them behind bars could cripple the sect.
“This is an illegal terror group that usually receives orders from above and that is why we want to destroy its so-called leadership,” he said.
He said out of the illegal movements that were banned by the Government seven years ago, Mungiki was the only active one and remained dangerous to the society.
Social and spiritual hunger
Waruinge says unemployment has played a significant part in strengthening the sect.
“Give these youths jobs and they will abandon their activities. Otherwise you will continue seeing more of them joining the movement,” he said.
He says the Mungiki sect seems to satisfy a social and spiritual hunger among the young slum dwellers, a gap that the church and the state have failed to fill.
“I would say this is a social reaction to either poverty or just being disgruntled. The best approach is talk to Mungiki. If we are going to hunt them down, the problem is going to be worse,” he says.
Mau Mau took up arms only after the colonial government harassed them and forced them into the bush, he says. The pastor claims Njenga stopped being part of the Mungiki leadership when he was released from jail a year ago.
Police last week arrested Njenga as he and nine others slept in a 10-roomed house. The house allegedly belongs to a Central Kenya politician.
Police recovered a pistol, 22 rolls of bhang, three cars and Mungiki paraphernalia, which would serve as exhibits when the suspects will be taken to court. Also seized was Sh470,000 from a Mitsubishi Pajero that was parked outside the house located about 4km from Ngong.
The raid was the second on Njenga’s houses after last year’s operation in Kitengela, where several suspects were arrested. General Service Unit officers are still guarding the Kitengela house and another team was deployed to guard the Ngong one.
Waruinge says Njenga formed the Kenya National Youth Alliance soon after his release and abandoned the sect. He defended him against claims that he owned a gun. He said most youth in the movement are promoted to a certain rank once they are arrested.
“Nobody actually intends to fight but one does so after being provoked. The more you persecute and oppress a people, the more you will turn them into militants. The Government has contributed to the birth of Mungiki through its high-handedness,” he says.
Some students in Central Province founded Mungiki in 1987 to reclaim political power and wealth, which its members claimed, was “stolen” from the Kikuyu. Its leaders claim they have four million members around the country and to have infiltrated Government offices, factories, schools and the armed forces. Such members do not necessarily sport dreadlocks but support and finance the sect behind the scenes.
Fighting foreign ideologies
What is known is that the sect operates in secrecy, taking unusual oaths and saying strange prayers in forests and rivers in Central Kenya.
Kikuyu oral literature portray gory images of their ritual scenes: Adult men with loincloths wrapped around their waists, standing barefoot in rivers, engaging in snuff sessions and bathing in blood mixed with urine and goat tripe.
Njenga often claims that he had a vision from God (Ngai) commanding him to unite the Kikuyu and fight foreign ideologies. Away from the running battles with the police, the Mungiki members have also been involved in stripping women wearing miniskirts and trousers in public, forcible female circumcision, raiding police stations to free their own members and extorting money from matatu operators.
The intrusion into the public transport industry is the latest tact that the followers have employed to earn a living.
It is believed that about three-quarters of bus stages in Nairobi and some parts of Central Kenya are manned by the sect’s adherents.
This has made the Government declare an all-out war against the illegal movement.
The Police Commissioner, Maj Gen Hussein Ali, says some of the sect followers are involved in carjacking of public service vehicles, especially those whose owners refuse to pay a daily fee.
“Some of the matatu operators are themselves adherents of Mungiki sect or are involved in carjacking of matatus on a daily basis. We will not tolerate that,” he said.
Crackdown on the sect
Since the sect started engaging in illegal activities, over 50 lives have been lost and property worth millions of shillings destroyed.
Police officers have also been victims during their battles with sect members. The latest battle took place in Murang’a during a burial ceremony of five suspected followers of the sect. A special team has been set up at the CID headquarters to investigate Mungiki activities.
Over 2,000 suspected followers have been arrested in Nairobi and Murang’a in an operation that was launched last month by internal security minister John Michuki.
Njenga’s arrest by a contingent of 100 officers who descended on his maisonette is the latest incident in the crackdown on the sect. Njenga said Sh470,000 found in his car was from maize sales to a city maize miller.
But police claim the money could have come from the youths positioned to extort from transport operators.
“We want to establish if the money came out of extortions they made it on the roads,” said Ndegwa.
Njenga denied any relationship with the Mungiki sect, saying he quit “long ago”.
The crackdown on the sect started after Ndegwa and two other officers were shot and injured during a protest in the city by people believed to be Mungiki members last month.
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