Armed police recently raided Nairobi’s slums in a crackdown on the Mungiki.
\nAt least 11 people have been killed in violence around Nairobi that police blamed on members of a banned sect that is powerful in the Kenyan capital’s slums.<\/p>\n
Police said on Friday that the Mungiki sect killed three people overnight whose mutilated bodies were dumped in the Banana shopping centre, 20km north of Nairobi.<\/p>\n
“Two people were slashed to death and dumped there. About a kilometre away, a man was beheaded. We suspect the killings were carried out by Mungiki,” a police official said.<\/p>\n
Mungiki members were also suspected of involvement in a gun and grenade attack on a bar in which eight people died.<\/p>\n
Other reports put the death toll for the night’s violence at as high as 22.<\/p>\n
Mau Mau influence<\/p>\n
Once only a religious group who embraced traditional rituals such as female circumcision, the Mungiki sect has fractured into a politically linked gang.<\/p>\n
Mungiki claims to have thousands of adherents, all drawn from the Kikuyu, Kenya’s largest tribe.<\/p>\n
The group, whose name means “multitude” in the Kikuyu language, was inspired by the 1950s Mau Mau rebellion against British colonial rule.<\/p>\n
In recent years, it has been linked to extortion, murder and political violence.<\/p>\n
The group’s founder, Maina Njenga, who has publicly denied links to Mungiki recently but who is widely believed to still be a guiding force, was sentenced to five years in prison Thursday on gun and drug charges.<\/p>\n
Banned in 2002 following deadly slum violence, the gang is notorious for criminal activities including extortion and murder.<\/p>\n
Leaflets circulated by the group call on Kenyan youth to join up and prepare for an uprising against the government.<\/p>\n
“Arise! Arise! Arise!” one of the leaflets says. “Stand up for your rights now.”<\/p>\n
Hundreds of people fled a shantytown in Kenya’s capital earlier this month, where at least 33 people were killed during a police crackdown on on the Mungiki group.<\/p>\n
Political control<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, a Mungiki leader said the government crackdown has done nothing to stop the secretive group, which makes money by demanding protection payments from minibus drivers.<\/p>\n
It also controls illegal businesses that produce homemade alcohol or provide electricity to slum areas by rerouting the circuits.<\/p>\n
The minibuses, known as matatus, are the main form of public transportation in Kenya.<\/p>\n
“Nothing has changed,” the leader told the AP news agency, insisting his name not be published because he is wanted by police.<\/p>\n
“Most politicians in this area are affiliated with us in one way or another.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Armed police recently raided Nairobi’s slums in a crackdown on the Mungiki. At least 11 people have been killed in violence around Nairobi that police blamed on members of a banned sect that is powerful in the Kenyan capital’s slums. Police said on Friday that the Mungiki sect killed three people overnight whose mutilated bodies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","spay_email":""},"categories":[11,19],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}