Tom Odula
8 February 2003
Nairobi — Members of the outlawed Mungiki sect have guns, Nairobi Provincial Police boss, Stephen Kimenchu said yesterday. He made the remarks at the Jogoo Road Police Station when he received five Mungiki sect members who surrendered to police in Nairobi, asking for amnesty.
This brings to 148 the total number of suspects in the police custody following Wednesday's brutal murder of two police officers in Dandora estate by assailants said to be Mungiki adherents.
Kimenchu said among those arrested are five prominent city tycoons who sponsored the attacks.
Kimenchu said three shots were fired in the air by the sect members who murdered a police officer in Dandora on Wednesday.
Five people, two policemen and three suspected Mungiki adherents died following the violence in Dandora.
On Wednesday afternoon, assailants believed to be Mungiki members attacked five policemen who had gone to prevent them from extorting protection money from Matatu touts.
A police officer identified as Constable Edward Mwangi was hacked to death before the unruly group of about 200 Mungiki youths doused his body in petrol and set it alight.
The badly-mutilated body of another officer was discovered on Thursday morning by a team of police officers deployed to patrol the estate and its environs.
Kimenchu allayed fears that one of three wanted Mungiki leaders was posing as a patient at a local hospital.
He said they conducted a door-to-door search at the hospital and affirmed that none of the Mungiki members were hiding there.
He said the hunt for sect chairman Maina Njenga and national co-ordinator Ndura Waruinge was still on.
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