Mungiki leader killed in Nairobi

• He was killed after he was confronted by three unknown assailants in Nairobi's Luthuli Avenue.
• Njuguna's death comes a day after sect leader Maina Njenga claimed his life was in danger.

Mungiki spokesman Njuguna Gitau Njuguna was on Thursday shot dead in Nairobi. He was gunned down by an unknown assailant inside a mobile phone shop in the city’s Luthuli Avenue at 4.15pm.

A sales girl said there was a heated argument between four men. “They walked in side by side and I thought it was the normal harassment by city council askaris (security officers). So I ignored it,” said the girl, who did not want her name disclosed. “The other men held Mr Njuguna like a prisoner,” she said.

“They were holding his shirt and trousers and they had sandwiched him,” she explained. Mr Njuguna in trying to break free, jumped on to the counter and held on firmly, the witness said. She said she thought the men were arguing until she realised that Mr Njuguna was begging for his life, pleading with the men not to kill him.

“One of the men, dressed in a polo shirt, drew a gun and shot him in the eye and stomach. By that time we were all on the ground,” she told the Nation at the scene. The killers casually walked away. His death comes a day after Mungiki leader Maina Njenga, recently released from jail, said his life was in danger. Mr Njenga claims to have converted to Christianity.

The government on Thursday quickly said the shooting was not done by the police. On Thursday night Internal Security Permanent Secretary Francis Kimemia said: “Police are on full alert and they will track down and know who did it. It is very easy to blame the police but let the law enforcers investigate the matter first.”

Mr Kimemia said reports from officers on the ground were that Mr Njuguna had been arguing about money with two other men. Mungiki has been accused of waging a campaign of bloodshed and extortion, including the massacre of dozens of villagers in Mathira in April. Mr Njenga was tried and set free over those killings.

A UN investigator said police had formed a death squad to eliminate alleged gang members. But there have also been reports of internal wrangling and gangland killings within the criminal sect.

On Thursday, Mr Paul Muite, one of the lawyers who defended Mr Njenga, said that Mr Njuguna on Friday expressed fears for his life, allegedly after being approached by members of the Kwekwe Squad, a police squad established to deal with the Mungiki.

The government announced that the squad was disbanded earlier in the year. Mr Muite said that Mr Njuguna informed partygoers at the home of Mr Njenga that they would kill Mr Njenga in a month, then spread propaganda that he had been killed by sect members, unhappy with his conversion to Christianity. It was not possible to corroborate Mr Muite’s claims.

Mr Muite said the killing, during a visit by ICC prosecutor Louis Moreno-Ocampo, was “striking”. “It is an extra-judicial killing ,” said Mr Muite. Mr Njuguna’s body was taken to Kamukunji police station where an officer said in Kiswahili; “This is the guy who has been disturbing us.” The body was later transferred to City Mortuary.