I never linked the Mungiki to Uhuru, MP tells ICC

The International Criminal Court was on Friday given details of how the Mungiki tried to get into contact with the PNU leadership at the height of the post-election violence.

The court was also given details about how the Mungiki tried to extort money from Mr Kenyatta’s defence team.

Kikuyu MP Lewis Nguyai said that as he was leaving Jacaranda Hotel in January 2008, he met two Mungiki members he had not seen before.

Mr Nguyai, who was testifying as Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta’s witness, explained that they told him that they had not supported PNU in the 2007 elections “but it was time to come home”.

The two Mungiki members, whom Mr Nguyai described as the leadership, told him that the community was protected by three pillars: elders, the rich and warriors.

They told him that they were the warriors and had come to the hotel in order to have access to the rich.

Mr Nguyai also told the court that the two wanted him to link them to Mr Kenyatta, Mr John Michuki and Prof George Saitoti, among other top politicians.

“They said that they could offer me security, which I declined,” said Mr Nguyai. He added that he exchanged contacts with them. He also said that he never linked them to Mr Kenyatta.

End the violence

“Once I had confirmed that these were Mungiki, I thought it would be prudent to save their number. I did not help them contact Mr Kenyatta. I met them seven or eight times and at no time did they contact Mr Kenyatta,” said Mr Nguyai.

Mr Nguyai told the court that the two men said that they had a plan to end the violence and wanted resources for ammunition to fight. He added that by the third or fourth meeting, they asked for token money and he would give them between Sh2,500 and Sh3,000.

He told the court that the two men at one time after the Naivasha and Nakuru chaos, said the violence was perpetrated by “non-professionals” and they would have done a better “job”.

Mr Nguyai said that he helped one of the two men with paying school fees for his children as he claimed he was not able to get gainful employment and he feared for his security.

He added that as an MP, he joined committees that had intense contact with Mungiki as they investigated organised gangs.

Mr Nguyai also told the court that he was not aware that Mr Kenyatta is Mungiki, adding that the Deputy Prime Minister had at one time told him that he would never associate with the sect as it would be a terrible blow for him politically.

“I introduced 12 (the unidentified Mungiki leaders) to Mr Kenyatta’s defence. In August, I was interviewed by the defence and I indicated that I had received extortion messages from 12 and another one demanding Sh3 million for the work they had done for the defence,” said Mr Nguyai, adding that he has the original text messages.

He further said that one of them appeared at the reception area of my office. He told the court that the Mungiki leader said that if he did not honour the demands, he “would pay for it”. The MP said that the man told him to pass the message to Mr Kenyatta.

“I started avoiding them but I managed to forward the messages to the Internal Security PS and I left it at that. The latest message I received was on Friday last week,” said Mr Nguyai.