Maina Njenga at a past court appearance. Photo/FILE
By GAKIHA WERU gweru@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Saturday, April 28 2012 at 22:30
Posted Saturday, April 28 2012 at 22:30
In Summary
- Supporters of Maina Njenga are not as confrontational as before but police say they are the same killer gang
When Maina Njenga appeared before a Nairobi court to face robbery with violence charges on Wednesday, it was not the first time the former Mungiki leader was finding himself in the dock to answer to grave charges.
Ever since he was revealed as the leader of the Mungiki in the 1990s, Mr Njenga has been in court quite a few times – at one time staying in custody for more than three years over murder and illegal gun possession charges.
When he was acquitted in October 2009, he denounced the Mungiki saying he was a “born again” Christian. Initially he joined the Jesus is Alive Ministries headed by Housing assistant minister Bishop Margaret Wanjiru.
Shortly after a sensational association with the church – he even announced that he had brought with him young men capable of marrying the young women in Bishop Wanjiru’s congregation – he left to form his own church.
For a time, it seemed that Mr Njenga, and thousands of Mungiki adherents in tow, had turned a new leaf signalling the end of a sect that had been accused of many atrocities ranging from murder to extortion rings in Nairobi, central Kenya and parts of the Rift Valley.
Some of the murders for which police blamed them were as bizarre as beheadings and conducting oathing ceremonies.
Today, Mr Njenga is in trouble with the law over an incident in which four policemen were beaten and allegedly robbed at his Kasarani-based Hope International Church. The officers had reportedly been dispatched to investigate reports that a man in the congregation was armed with a gun. Mr Njenga has been charged with violent robbery — a capital offence — and is out on bail.
What has captured the attention of the public is the appearance of hundreds of his slogans-and-prayer-chanting supporters when he appeared at Milimani Law Courts on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The convergence of the youth at the courts evoked memories of the outlawed sect’s earlier and occasional forays into the city over the years. The question that security agencies are grappling with now is whether the country is witnessing the emergence of the Mungiki.
Vigilance House is not mincing words on this matter. Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe says that Mungiki is regrouping and all well meaning leaders and citizens must support the police in eradicating the group.
Mr Kiraithe says the police has information that extortion rackets have reemerged in towns like Nyanyuki, Nyeri, Murang’a, Nyahururu, Kinangop and Kiambu and the proceeds are being used for political activities.
“Unless Kenyans refuse to see, Mungiki is completely revived, the name notwithstanding. The tactics have changed very slightly but the intentions remain the same and the characters are the same. If Kenyans do not want to support the police in wiping out the Mungiki, they will pay a price and it will not take too long,” Mr Kiraithe told the Sunday Nation.
“I don’t know why Kenyans are joking with Mungiki. I don’t know why people want to play with Maina Njenga. It is very tragic that all commentators on Limuru 2B events only saw police and did not see the Mungiki. We don’t need those people. There are votes all over and there are civil ways of looking for votes,” Mr Kiraithe said.
He added that police would do all within their legal powers to stop illegal groups in their tracks.“We are pursuing, through available laws, ways to stop them. The major support Kenyans can give us is to completely separate politics from Mungiki.
If people stage-manage an incident, call the police, injure them and take their firearms, that is robbery. Nobody should play politics with that.
Let us know one thing; whether you are a constitutional office holder or not, if you are in the criminal justice system, you are part and parcel of delivering law and order. What the society wants is law and order,” Mr Kiraithe said.
Through his lawyer Paul Muite, Mr Njenga told the Sunday Nation that while most Mungiki members denounced the sect, the issues that brought the youth together in the sect are still very much alive.
Mr Muite says so far the government has tended to treat the groupings as a law and order issue and this is why they have persistently refused to go away. Since he confessed his conversion to Christianity, Mr Njenga has been active in the political arena, appearing alongside senior politicians in many functions.
In the recent past, he attended a conference in Limuru that brought together top politicians from the Gema communities. He went away miffed after he was denied a chance to address the meeting. Two weeks later he appeared at the Kanu National Delegates Conference at Kasarani.
His supporters created chaotic scenes when he was prevented from addressing the conference. Just to demonstrate his clout, Mr Njenga made his way to the podium and was seen consorting with acting Kanu chairman Gideon Moi.
The group’s dalliance with politicians and political parties has shifted from time to time but their effect on voting day is hardly felt. Mr Njenga’s late wife Virginia Nyakio vied for the Laikipia West parliamentary seat on a Party of Independent Candidates of Kenya (Pick) ticket in 2007 but lost miserably. She got 461 votes against the winner, Mr Nderitu Muriithi of PNU who got 42,196.
“The claims of Mungiki that are being bandied around are a smokescreen. The truth is that a new order is emerging in central Kenya that is threatening the old order made up of rich conservative forces. What we are witnessing is a class struggle,” Mr Muite said.
The senior counsel said youth in central Kenya have been marginalised by historical injustices that saw their parents denied what they fought for during the Mau Mau war.
One man who fought Mungiki with resolve was fallen Cabinet minister John Michuki. In 2007, Mr Michuki, who passed on in February, ordered police to crack down on the group and break its back.
At one point, Mr Michuki, then Internal Security minister, told a public meeting in Murang’a that parents must warn their sons to stay away from the activities of the group and that those who would dare him would only hear of funerals.
Public backing
It was a chilling warning that the government would crack down with full force and Mr Michuki lived up to that billing. Police went out in full force and the crackdown, which received widespread public backing, appears to have led to Prof Alston’s conclusions that the police had engaged in extra-judicial killings.
But the war on Mungiki relented around the General Election time for what appears to have been political considerations. The government, going by National Security Advisory Committee minutes tabled at the International Criminal Court, appeared to have been avoiding bad public relations when the incumbent President Kibaki was fighting a tough battle to retain the presidency.
In the meantime, the criminal elements in Mungiki regrouped. Parts of Central Province were taken up again. Fed up, residents of Kirinyaga took on the sect in a bloody war that saw 14 members of the sect lynched by villagers in April 2009.
But in a deadly revenge mission, the gang massacred 29 people in Mathira on the night of April 21, 2009, before the government deployed rapid response units and eventually the sect was run to the ground.
If what the police say is true, the Mungiki have modified their approach. In their original form, they would engage security men in violent confrontations. In Limuru, they were actually running away from the police. At Milimani courts last week, they said the Lord’s prayer with Mr Njenga beseeching them to remain peaceful.
Ever since he was revealed as the leader of the Mungiki in the 1990s, Mr Njenga has been in court quite a few times – at one time staying in custody for more than three years over murder and illegal gun possession charges.
When he was acquitted in October 2009, he denounced the Mungiki saying he was a “born again” Christian. Initially he joined the Jesus is Alive Ministries headed by Housing assistant minister Bishop Margaret Wanjiru.
Shortly after a sensational association with the church – he even announced that he had brought with him young men capable of marrying the young women in Bishop Wanjiru’s congregation – he left to form his own church.
For a time, it seemed that Mr Njenga, and thousands of Mungiki adherents in tow, had turned a new leaf signalling the end of a sect that had been accused of many atrocities ranging from murder to extortion rings in Nairobi, central Kenya and parts of the Rift Valley.
Some of the murders for which police blamed them were as bizarre as beheadings and conducting oathing ceremonies.
Today, Mr Njenga is in trouble with the law over an incident in which four policemen were beaten and allegedly robbed at his Kasarani-based Hope International Church. The officers had reportedly been dispatched to investigate reports that a man in the congregation was armed with a gun. Mr Njenga has been charged with violent robbery — a capital offence — and is out on bail.
What has captured the attention of the public is the appearance of hundreds of his slogans-and-prayer-chanting supporters when he appeared at Milimani Law Courts on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The convergence of the youth at the courts evoked memories of the outlawed sect’s earlier and occasional forays into the city over the years. The question that security agencies are grappling with now is whether the country is witnessing the emergence of the Mungiki.
Vigilance House is not mincing words on this matter. Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe says that Mungiki is regrouping and all well meaning leaders and citizens must support the police in eradicating the group.
Mr Kiraithe says the police has information that extortion rackets have reemerged in towns like Nyanyuki, Nyeri, Murang’a, Nyahururu, Kinangop and Kiambu and the proceeds are being used for political activities.
“Unless Kenyans refuse to see, Mungiki is completely revived, the name notwithstanding. The tactics have changed very slightly but the intentions remain the same and the characters are the same. If Kenyans do not want to support the police in wiping out the Mungiki, they will pay a price and it will not take too long,” Mr Kiraithe told the Sunday Nation.
“I don’t know why Kenyans are joking with Mungiki. I don’t know why people want to play with Maina Njenga. It is very tragic that all commentators on Limuru 2B events only saw police and did not see the Mungiki. We don’t need those people. There are votes all over and there are civil ways of looking for votes,” Mr Kiraithe said.
He added that police would do all within their legal powers to stop illegal groups in their tracks.“We are pursuing, through available laws, ways to stop them. The major support Kenyans can give us is to completely separate politics from Mungiki.
If people stage-manage an incident, call the police, injure them and take their firearms, that is robbery. Nobody should play politics with that.
Let us know one thing; whether you are a constitutional office holder or not, if you are in the criminal justice system, you are part and parcel of delivering law and order. What the society wants is law and order,” Mr Kiraithe said.
Through his lawyer Paul Muite, Mr Njenga told the Sunday Nation that while most Mungiki members denounced the sect, the issues that brought the youth together in the sect are still very much alive.
Mr Muite says so far the government has tended to treat the groupings as a law and order issue and this is why they have persistently refused to go away. Since he confessed his conversion to Christianity, Mr Njenga has been active in the political arena, appearing alongside senior politicians in many functions.
In the recent past, he attended a conference in Limuru that brought together top politicians from the Gema communities. He went away miffed after he was denied a chance to address the meeting. Two weeks later he appeared at the Kanu National Delegates Conference at Kasarani.
His supporters created chaotic scenes when he was prevented from addressing the conference. Just to demonstrate his clout, Mr Njenga made his way to the podium and was seen consorting with acting Kanu chairman Gideon Moi.
The group’s dalliance with politicians and political parties has shifted from time to time but their effect on voting day is hardly felt. Mr Njenga’s late wife Virginia Nyakio vied for the Laikipia West parliamentary seat on a Party of Independent Candidates of Kenya (Pick) ticket in 2007 but lost miserably. She got 461 votes against the winner, Mr Nderitu Muriithi of PNU who got 42,196.
“The claims of Mungiki that are being bandied around are a smokescreen. The truth is that a new order is emerging in central Kenya that is threatening the old order made up of rich conservative forces. What we are witnessing is a class struggle,” Mr Muite said.
The senior counsel said youth in central Kenya have been marginalised by historical injustices that saw their parents denied what they fought for during the Mau Mau war.
One man who fought Mungiki with resolve was fallen Cabinet minister John Michuki. In 2007, Mr Michuki, who passed on in February, ordered police to crack down on the group and break its back.
At one point, Mr Michuki, then Internal Security minister, told a public meeting in Murang’a that parents must warn their sons to stay away from the activities of the group and that those who would dare him would only hear of funerals.
Public backing
It was a chilling warning that the government would crack down with full force and Mr Michuki lived up to that billing. Police went out in full force and the crackdown, which received widespread public backing, appears to have led to Prof Alston’s conclusions that the police had engaged in extra-judicial killings.
But the war on Mungiki relented around the General Election time for what appears to have been political considerations. The government, going by National Security Advisory Committee minutes tabled at the International Criminal Court, appeared to have been avoiding bad public relations when the incumbent President Kibaki was fighting a tough battle to retain the presidency.
In the meantime, the criminal elements in Mungiki regrouped. Parts of Central Province were taken up again. Fed up, residents of Kirinyaga took on the sect in a bloody war that saw 14 members of the sect lynched by villagers in April 2009.
But in a deadly revenge mission, the gang massacred 29 people in Mathira on the night of April 21, 2009, before the government deployed rapid response units and eventually the sect was run to the ground.
If what the police say is true, the Mungiki have modified their approach. In their original form, they would engage security men in violent confrontations. In Limuru, they were actually running away from the police. At Milimani courts last week, they said the Lord’s prayer with Mr Njenga beseeching them to remain peaceful.
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