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Mungiki bounces back with a bang
More articles on this topic: MungikiThis week’s street demonstrations by youths to demand the release of Mungiki spiritual leader Maina Njenga seems to have raised doubts over the Government’s commitment to wiping out private militias.
At its infancy, the Kibaki administration was credited with crushing the Mungiki sect by launching a crackdown in all the areas where it operated.
In the first week of the administration, the Mungiki hacked to death 23 people at a Nakuru residential area. The killings presented President Kibaki’s young government with its first major security challenge.
But the Internal Security minister at the time, Dr Chris Murungaru, ordered police to clamp down on the outlawed sect and all other militias.
The security agencies had full political backing, and this forced the Mungiki leader, Mr Ndura Waruinge, and thousands of supporters to abandoned it.
Mr Waruinge turned to religion and became a preacher. But it is not known what became of the other reformists.
However, the war on Mungiki and other private armies began to crumble when security agencies, the Internal Security ministry in particular, relaxed.
Thus, unless the Government moves fast to reassert its authority, the recent events are likely to erase gains made.
On Wednesday, demonstrations meant to condemn the killings at Nairobi’s Mathare slums turned into a demand for Mr Njenga’s release.
“Our patron Maina Njenga is languishing in remand for fabricated crimes, and police commissioner Hussein Ali should stop selective justice or resign,” Mr Joe Waiganjo said, adding that he was the executive officer of the Kenya National Youth Alliance (KNYA) political party. He read a statement on behalf of the demonstrators.
Mr Njenga’s crime, they said, was accepting to be patron of what they called a progressive party “that is threatening to overshadow the two-horse race between ODM Kenya and Narc Kenya.”
Championing cause of youth
Maj-Gen Ali, the demonstrators added, should move with speed and arrest the officers who raided “Mr Michuki’s Kangema home, wanting to kill him.”
The group started their march at Uhuru Park where youths had converged allegedly to launch the party which, they pointed out, would champion the cause of the youth.
The protesters disrupted traffic along major roads in the heart of Nairobi without police intervention. And in the evening, Maj-Gen Ali issued a statement banning all political and public rallies at the Mathare and Kibera slums. Meetings that had been authorised were included in the ban.
But the statement was silent on the demonstrations earlier in the day.
Questions are being raised as to why police allowed the youths to march yet the party had been suspect since its inception two years ago.
It is feared that the Mungiki adherents have changed their mode and are now operating under the aegis of KNYA.
In January, Internal Security minister John Michuki ordered police to be ruthless with the sect after it emerged that its officials were attempting to win legitimacy by transforming it into a political party.
“Despite the sect having been banned, there are obvious indications that it is still alive,” the minister told reporters at his Harambee House office in Nairobi.
“The police have been directed to use the full force of the law to (ensure the) sect and its illegal activities are totally stopped,” he said. “We shall deal with the sect ruthlessly.”
Mungiki is believed to be concentrated in Nairobi and parts of Central and Rift Valley provinces. It is blamed for killings and violent robberies, and has had countless bloody clashes with police.
Although the dreaded sect as well as the Taliban and other private armies are banned, they operate in secrecy. In particular, the criminal gangs have a firm grip on the lucrative public transport industry and the low-income residential areas of the city and other urban centres. They collect a protection fee from PSV operators and slum residents. And security agencies seem reluctant or unwilling to protect the innocent Kenyans the extortionist cartels.
Security experts say it is difficult to wipe out the private militias because they have the backing of some powerful politicians, and that they have infiltrated security agencies supposed to contain them.
In Mathare – now known as the Valley of Death after the slaughter of seven people in just two days – it is emerging that the bloody skirmishes were sparked by rivalry between Mungiki and the Taliban over the control of the local illicit-brew trade.
The hostility which had been simmering for some time, boiled over on Sunday when dealers rose up against Mungiki which had imposed a ban on brewing in a section of the slum.
The sect had accused the brewers of shifting allegiance to police and the provincial administration and remitting the protection money to them.
The ban had been in effect for almost a week and several residents who felt deprived of their drink, supported the brewers. The Taliban was sucked into the battle when members stepped in to provide security for the brewers.
The residents live by the law of the jungle as police hardly venture into the crime-prone area. They claim that police have abdicated their security duty to Mungiki and the Taliban, and that the gangs share with the officers money they collect from every household and business in protection fee.
In police absence, the self-styled vigilante groups collect Sh300 a week from each illicit-brew maker, Sh30 from every household, Sh50 from each kiosk owner and Sh1,000 from every shopkeeper along Juja Road.
The gangs are found on all PSV routes and, in full public view, they collect money everyday.
Mungiki and the Taliban are among private armies linked to prominent politicians which were outlawed by police commissioner Philemon Abong’o on March 8, 2002. This was after a clash between Mungiki and the Taliban claimed 21 lives at Kariobangi, Nairobi.
Thirty-one other people were seriously injured when a gang of about 300 youths, wielding machetes and axes, went on the rampage at the estate.
The two groups seem to be on the prowl again as evidenced by the killing of six people in Mathare. Scores of innocent residents have been wounded and property damaged in the turf war.
The other groups banned by Mr Abong’o for being a threat to security were Jeshi la Embakasi, Jeshi la Mzee, Baghdad Boys, Sungu Sungu, Amachuma, Chinkororo, Dallas Muslim Youth, Runyenjes Football Club, Jeshi la Kingole, Kaya Bombo Youth, Sakina Youth, Charo Shutu, Kukacha Boys, Kosovo Boys, Banyamulenge and KamJesh.
“These groups are Illegal, and Kenyans are advised to keep away from them and their activities,” he said then. “Adherents to the groups will be arrested and charged in court.”
Although President Moi visited Kariobangi after the massacre and denounced Mungiki and the Taliban, a political marriage between ruling party Kanu and Mungiki for the 2002 General Election caused a major storm in the opposition.
At Kariobangi, Mr Moi blamed the police and provincial administration for failing to stop the killings. “No-one should blame me if he or she is sacked,” he warned. “I will even (deploy) retired army generals with good track records in areas where I want to see discipline streamlined.
“If you are sacked don’t blame me, blame your work.”
But five months later, Kenyans watched in disbelief as thousands of snuff-snorting Mungiki members, carrying all manner of weapons, staged a massive demonstration in the streets of Nairobi in support of Mr Moi’s preferred successor, Mr Uhuru Kenyatta.
Police cleared the way for the marchers and no attempt was made to arrest those carrying weapons. Neither Mr Moi nor Mr Abong’o raised a finger, and it was not difficult to conclude that Mungiki enjoyed special immunity after they declared support for the Kanu candidate.
Some opposition MPs and other leaders also had private dealings with Mungiki, while others expressed public support. Some of the leaders are in government today. Wednesday’s demonstration rekindled memories of 2002.
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