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Kenya: Killings Linked to the War Against Mungiki Sect
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The Nation (Nairobi)
23 October 2007
Posted to the web 22 October 2007
Fred Mukinda
Nairobi
Police hit squads engaged in a vicious war with the criminal Mungiki sect are in the spotlight following the killing of scores of people whose bodies have been dumped in the Ngong Forest area.
An official of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights displays clothes of men executed in a thicket in the Magadi Road area of Kajiado. Photo/ FILE
Presently, there are two prime units fighting Mungiki followers.
The official face of the war is the Kwekwe squad headed by an Assistant Commissioner of Police based at Nairobi area CID headquarters.
The other is a team comprising a handful officers headed by a Chief Inspector who has direct access to Police commissioner Hussein Ali.
In the normal line of duty, the officer in charge would go through at least eight senior officers to reach Maj Gen Ali.
According to sources, the squad is mandated to even engage in Mungiki antics in pursuing its targets.
The squad does not have a permanent base as it is largely mobile, traversing known Mungiki strong holds in Eldoret, Nakuru, Nairobi and towns in Central and Eastern provinces.
The special team has new vehicles at its disposal but fitted with old registration number plates to camouflage their activities.
Its officers are adequately funded with money being sent to their bank accounts regularly, for personal upkeep as well as gathering intelligence.
The officers only report to Nairobi headquarters to replenish their bullet stocks.
Among other tasks, they are expected to furnish Vigilance House, the police headquarters, with criminal profiles of their targets and cannot take any action without the authority of those who study them.
These are the squads that have been linked to what is being referred to as the killing fields in which bodies of people are dumped in scattered remote areas around Nairobi, all having been executed.
Since July, 5, the Nation has kept a tally, 38 bodies have been collected in deserted lands in Naivasha, Nyandarua and Machakos districts, and other uninhabited places in Nairobi.
Initial investigations show all the victims were brutally killed.
Nine of them had been strangled and inflicted with deep cuts using sharp objects, the rest died after being shot several times at a close range.
The victims were men as young as 17 years and not above 40-year-olds.
Other sources who spoke on condition of anonymity alleged the number of people killed since June is way above 400, the majority having been disposed without trace.
A man linked to top Mungiki hierarchy has been missing since he was freed by the court.
The same day, the source told the Nation that 18 people were shot dead, and their bodies thrown into the crocodile-infested River Tana. There are no chances of ever finding traces of the victims.
None of the known underground gangs has claimed responsibility and police too have failed to explain the events.
Another common track is all victims had either been linked to Mungiki activities or had been questioned by police in connection with serious crimes, several weeks before they went missing.
Some of the victims have been buried after being identified by relatives and friends while others lie in the mortuaries unclaimed.
Take the blame
Fingers are being pointed at police who have moved not to take the blame. Police spokesman Eric Kiarithe linked the killings to a band of killers whose motive is yet to be established.
The chairman of the parliamentary committee on administration of justice and legal affairs, Mr Paul Muite, said: "It's extremely serious the way the nation appears to have accepted extra judicial killings by police in the name of fighting Mungiki and other criminals."
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Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe has moved to defend the Force, describing the events as "pure murders which are being investigated and suspects will soon be charged in court."
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