EDITORIALS
MP’s Mungiki confession a wake-up call
The Nation
Publication Date: 2007/06/10
A wealthy villager from Nyandarua, who was experimenting with communalism and indulging in the romance of Kikuyu traditional religion, has ultimately unleashed untold terror and death on Kenya unparalleled in recent memory. How this has come about is a story with all the ingredients of an African tragedy: Ethnic chauvinism and hatred, power mongering, incompetence in office, corruption, amoral political opportunism and greed.
A Sunday Nation investigation published elsewhere in this paper reveals that at inception, Mungiki was an odd-ball commune where members pooled the harvest and shared according to need and reminisced about a past when women were circumcised and men took snuff. There were baptisms and oathing rituals after the cult’s interpretation of ancient Kikuyu religious practices.
THE CULT USED THE PROCEEDS OF ITS communal wealth to attract new members. The tenor of its activities changed when it opened its doors to refugees fleeing ethnic clashes in the Rift Valley; converts poured in. It is almost certain that the cult was recruited to provide fighters in the ethnic clashes. What started as an animist cult became an ethnically radicalised militia, probably seeing itself as the “protectors” of their tribe.
For politicians, here was a potent weapon, an ethnically indoctrinated fanatical and violent cult which could be used to intimidate rivals and sold for political advantage.
That they merited the attention of such people as former Molo MP Kihika Kimani had the effect of tribally mainstreaming a hitherto fringe gang.
THAT MR KIMANI ONCE PARADED PEOPLE he claimed were Mungiki followers who had defected to Kanu is a matter of public record, as were his threats to unleash the Mungiki on the rivals of the former regime.
But it is on arrival in the city that the snuff-sniffing, dreadlocked hicks shrewdly saw the endless possibilities of quick money and the cult transformed itself from a bogus religious movement and tribal army to a murderous gang of greed-driven mafia. In the slums, where there is no law, not even the cultural morals that regulate social life, and people are dehumanised and brutalised by drugs, poverty and crime, the gang presented itself as the local “security”, “disciplining” men who beat their wives and killing muggers.
THE MATATU BUSINESS WAS RUN BY largely unstructured cartels which profited from extortion and protection rackets. Mungiki muscled in and fought bloody gang wars in which many were killed. It finally took total control.
This was extended to housing estates, such as Kayole, where Mungiki provides “security” for a fee, allocates land, collects a “tax” on building materials, electricity and water supply. The control of Mungiki over many residents of the city is so complete and the absence of the formal authorities so conspicuous that the Sunday Nation, in a special report earlier in the year, characterised it as constituting an alternative government.
Where the police, security agencies, the provincial administration, Parliament and the political leadership of the country and city were when this was happening, or what they were doing or thinking in allowing it, are a considerable mystery to peace-loving Kenyans.
THE SHOCKING REVELATION ON FRIDAY by an MP that he and 10 colleagues were abducted and some of them allegedly forced to take an oath to protect the cult lends credence to Mungiki’s oft-repeated boasts that its membership goes very high in the political circles. It may also explain the cult’s exponential growth, influence and apparent impunity.
The piles of extortion money are too good to pass up for some in this country. There is therefore in this mix some serious corruption: Not every shilling extorted from matatu owners ends up in the pockets of the Mungiki.
It is mind-boggling that to date, despite killing tens of people, including police officers, no one has ever been convicted for their part in Mungiki atrocities.
The targeting of police officers and the untold suffering caused by Mungiki, together with the slaughter by police as well as the MP’s claim, should be a wake-up call to the authorities. Mungiki must be rooted out, complete with its political roots and destroyed once and for all before it consumes the nation.
By slitting the throats of Kenyans and turning its guns on the police and the provincial administration, Mungiki has transformed itself once more, this time from a criminal organisation to a terrorist organisation. It is directly challenging the very foundations of the State, not just through firepower, panga-power and terror, but also by infiltrating the business and political elite. To negotiate with Mungiki would be to legitimise terror and criminality.
THE CULT MUST BE FORCED TO UNconditionally submit to the law: Mungiki must lay down its guns and cease its criminal activities. Those within it who have committed crimes, such as killing police officers, must be provided with every opportunity to suffer the consequences of their actions in accordance with the law.
In terms of responsibility, President Kibaki cannot, politically or legally, turn a deaf ear to claims that there are those in his Cabinet who support Mungiki. He must satisfy himself that his ministers are clean and those who are not are subjected to the due process.
