Activist killed as Mungiki returns

Police clear a road that was blocked by suspected members of the outlawed Mungiki sect in Nairobi on Thursday. PHOTO/HEZRON NJOROGE(NAIROBI)

The leader of an NGO which organised Mungiki protests that paralysed transport in many parts of the country on Thursday was later in the evening gunned down near the University of Nairobi.

Mr Oscar Kamau King’ara, the executive director of Oscar Foundation, an NGO with links to the Mungiki, was shot dead by unknown assailants, sparking unrest among University of Nairobi students.

Mr Kingára was in the company of a colleague, identified as a former official of the Students Union of the University of Nairobi, who was also killed.

The killing came at the end of a day when Mungiki re-asserted itself with widespread protests, paralysing transport and shutting down some towns for long periods in the course of the day. Sect members blocked roads using hijacked long haul trucks, burning barricades, and stones and forced public transport operators off the roads by intimidation. They also forced businesses to close in many parts.

The worst affected towns were Nairobi, Kiambu, Nyahururu, Nyeri, Naivasha, Embu, Nakuru and Molo, among others. In Thika, members of the public lynched two young men whom they accused of being Mungiki members.

Meanwhile, police early on Thursday moved in to clear the roads and arrested 125 suspects, including 52 in Nairobi, 35 in Molo, 18 in Kajiado and 5 in Naivasha.

Police said known Mungiki members had circulated notes to business people and matatu (public minivan) owners threatening to kill those who did not shut down their business. The sect has in the past beheaded matatu crews to extort money.

Serious threat

Kenya National Youth Alliance, the political arm of the Mungiki, said it did not call the protests. Its spokesman, Mr Gitau Njuguna Gitau, said: “If our members participated, it was on individual capacity. The two people killed at Thika are thugs and not our members.”

The Mungiki has grown from a quasi-religious organisation advocating a return to traditional Kikuyu values to a large, complex criminal organisation with multiple leaders and rival factions.

On Thursday, Police Commissioner Maj Gen Hussein Ali described “Mungiki is the single most serious threat to internal security today”, adding that the sect was “very vicious” with a blood-soaked history of “beheadings, extortion and carjackings”.

He said Mungiki had “drawn encouragement from the report” of a UN Rapporteur on Human Rights and “pro-Mungiki civil society groups”.

Criminal gang

Prof Philip Alston, the UN official, in his preliminary report, accused police of executing suspects without trial and recommended Gen Ali’s sacking and the resignation of Attorney-General Amos Wako.

Following the criticism and public pressure, the police disbanded a the Kwekwe Squad, a specialist unit set up to stamp out the sect, which was accused of brutality and illegal executions. The police also their softened approach in dealing with the protests on Thursday, with many of the officers confronting the mobs unarmed and focusing on clearing the roads.

Following the shooting last evening, police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said the killing was the work of criminals, adding: “Judging by the timing and the place of the incident, it was designed to cause student unrest.”

Mr Kingára had become the most vocal defender of the rights of the Mungiki and it is not unknown for rivalries within the sect to end in gangland executions.

The Alston report accused the police of setting up death squads to unlawfully kill suspects. Commenting on the report on Thursday, Maj Gen Ali dismissed it as having “a credibility problem”, “fiction” and “most probably an act of plagiarism” because the rapporteur had not allowed himself sufficient time to investigate complaints.

“It is inconceivable that Prof Alston, unless he is a magician, could have investigated issues that are broad and complex and issued concrete recommendations in 10 days. A case of chicken theft takes a little longer than that to investigate. His report sounds like fiction, and a poor one at that.”

“His report is more likely an act of plagiarism, he was given the report by someone else and is therefore a mouthpiece for a local group,” he said. The police boss asked KNHCR to “show as much concern for families whose bread winners have been beheaded as they show for the rights of the members of organized crime”.

He lamented the “deafening silence from church leaders and politicians”. Police said the Mungiki protests had been contained but by last evening there was no transport between Kangemi and the Nairobi City Centre.

Ghost town

Nyeri, the administrative headquarters of Central Province, remained a ghost town with public service vehicles parked and businesses closed. Over 1,000 matatus belonging to 2NK, 4NT and Nyena saccos that ply the Nairobi, Nyahururu and Nanyuki routes remained grounded. There were also chaos in Murang’a, Kerugoya and Mukurweini.

In Embu, residents woke up to find leaflets condemning police and urging the youth to rise and demonstrate against security agencies. Police fired in the air and used tear gas to disperse mobs which engaged them in cat and mouse games.

The Mungiki protests erupted in spite of increased police patrols, less than 24 hours after the government said it had received reports of impending protests by “illegal groups.”

In Nairobi, youths took over sections of the Nairobi-Mombasa highway near the city before 6 am and forced truck drivers to park across the highway. They also placed boulders and lit tyres on the roads.

Mr Kiraithe described the security situation as “very serious.” Matatu operators on routes 102 and 2, that ply the route, also withdrew their vehicles from the road. Others parts of the city affected included Kayole, Githurai, Kahawa West, Kikuyu, Kawangware, Dagoretti and Kinoo.

Energy assistant minister Charles Keter was forced to stop at one of the illegal roadblocks near Naivasha and his guards had to draw their pistols. The minister was travelling to Ol-karia. A statement by Government Spokesman Alfred Mutua on Wednesday evening said the chaos was planned by Mungiki with the support Non-Governmental Organisations.

Police said even though the specialist unit dealing with Mungiki had been disbanded, “we will stay the course, we will enforce the law and we will bring them to book”, according to Gen Ali.

In Dagoretti, police engaged the protesters in cat and mouse game and then arrested six men. The protesters would disappear into their homes anytime the police lobbed tear gas, watch the officers clear the road, then emerge and erect fresh barricades. “We finally had to flush them out of their homes,” Dagoretti District Officer Cornelius Wamalwa told the Nation.

In Thika, local police boss Patrick Mwakio said the two young men lynched in Kiganjo village were part of a group that had been demanding Sh200 from kiosk owners and matatu operators. In Kitengela, 13 suspected Mungiki members were arrested and accused of barricading a section of the Nairobi-Kajiado highway.

Kajiado OCPD Francis Sang said police were on high alert. Matatu operators stayed away while in Kiambu, most matatus stayed off the roads for the better part of the morning.

Additional reporting by Oliver Mathenge, Casper Waithaka, John Njagi and John Muchiri