Kenyan police has detained 120 suspected members of a sect accused of extorting money from Nairobi's minibus drivers. Kenyan media reports say authorities were ordered to crack down on members of the Mungiki and prevent demonstrations against the police.

The suspects belong to a sect called the Mungiki, that blends Christian doctrines and traditional African practices. It has been blamed for macabre killings, abductions, and extortion and also controls several Muntatu lines in Nairobi.

Full story: Over 100 Mungiki sect members held for extortion

The chairman of the Kenya National Youth Alliance - the political wing of the outlawed Mungiki sect - has been shot dead in his car.

It comes less than a fortnight after the wife of the sect's jailed leader was found beheaded, sparking riots in Nairobi and surrounding areas.

It is understood that Charles Ndungu was shot in his car as he headed to the lakeside resort town of Naivasha.

Human rights activists say he had reported he was being followed.

The Kenya National Youth Alliance brought parts of Nairobi to a standstill less than a fortnight ago.

At least 14 people died as they engaging in running battles with the police, who they had blamed for the recent murder of their jailed leader's wife - charges the police denied.

It was only after Kenya's new Prime Minister Raila Odinga agreed to meet the group and address their concerns, that threats of further disruption were withdrawn.

The Mungiki, mainly drawn from President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu ethnic group, run transport rackets in the capital and are likened to Kenya's version of the mafia.

Last year, more than 100 suspected sect members were killed in a police crackdown after a series of grisly beheadings blamed on the sect.

Full story: Mungiki sect leader is shot dead

Armed members of Kenya's Mungiki gang, angry at the beheading of their political leader's wife, fought paramilitary police on the streets of Nairobi yesterday. Up to 12 people were believed to have been killed.

Parts of the Kenyan capital came to a standstill when the gang blocked roads with burning tyres and tore up the railway tracks, derailing a commuter train. In Nairobi's slums, police unleashed tear gas to break up the demonstrations and fired live bullets over the heads of protesters. Police said two people had died, but local media put the death toll as high as 12. There were also reports of violence in the Rift Valley in western Kenya.

The decapitated body of Virginia Nyaiko, wife of the Mungiki's jailed political leader Maina Njenga, was recovered last week. Relatives and gang members have accused a section of the police force of being behind the killing but a national police spokesman described accusations of any police involvement as "totally false".

He said: "Why [would] the police want to kill this woman? If we are interested in the wife of the criminal we would have taken her to court."

Protesters said if Njenga was not freed, their action would fan out across the east African nation.

• Steve Bloomfield's Blog: Africa Unscrambled

Full story: Twelve die in Kenya violence after wife of gang boss is killed

Nairobi - Some 200 members of a banned sect linked to murders and beheadings, as well as killings during recent post-election violence, were arrested in the Kenyan capital over the past three days, police said on Thursday.

The sect, mainly drawn from President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe, has been accused of carrying out some of the killings that occurred during violence that claimed at least 1 500 lives after disputed elections on December 27.

The arrests came after police launched a house-to-house crackdown on the Mungiki sect on Tuesday in the capital's Kayole slums and outlying areas, said area police commander Leonard Omolo.

"The operation will continue because these people are the ones responsible for most of the crimes committed in the area," he said. "No amount of protests from residents will stop police operations.

Two suspects were shot and seriously wounded when they resisted arrest, officials said.

Once a religious group of dreadlocked youths who embraced traditional rituals, authorities say the Mungiki sect has evolved into a ruthless gang blamed for criminal activities that include extortion and murder.

Since March last year, the sect has been blamed for murdering dozens of people, including 14 beheadings, mainly in slum districts of the capital Nairobi and in central Kenya.

Police have responded with a heavy-handed crackdown, killing scores of Mungiki adherents.

Full story: 200 sect members held in Kenya

NAIROBI, Kenya - They gave warning to the unwelcome neighbors to leave. Then they came — dozens of young men with machetes — and hacked away at any members of the Luo tribe that they could find.

They are the Mungiki, a quasi-religious militia recruited to protect the interests of Kenya's largest and most prosperous ethnic group, the Kikuyus. Nearly finished off last summer during a government crackdown, the Mungikis have reemerged in a series of recent attacks in the Nairobi slum of Mathare that killed three and maimed more than a dozen others.

"When you see that your tribesmen are being sidelined and then slaughtered, you have to stand up and say 'No.' We fight back," says Peter, a senior Mungiki, who spoke on condition that his real name be withheld.

"Mainly our strategy is to be brutal and to send a message," he shrugs. "Sometimes it means beheading or dismembering. But the goal is to instill fear and send a message that unless they don't change what they are doing something bigger will happen to them."

Human rights activists say that militias like the Mungiki are the main reason why the postelection death toll has been so high.

Unlike spontaneous violence between neighbors, organized militias like the Mungiki sect have the capability and motivation to keep the murderous cycle of revenge attacks going for weeks.

"Initially, we were seeing three kinds of violence," says Muthoni Wanyeki, executive director of the Kenyan Human Rights Commission. Disorganized violence in villages tended to rise up suddenly, but fizzle out quickly. Organized militias — with paid, motivated members — have kept the violence going and have largely led the charge in expelling minority ethnic groups by force. Police use of extreme force — live bullets rather than water cannons or tear gas — has also stirred ethnic passions.

A fourth type of violence has now emerged, as displaced people carry back stories of horror and spur on calls of revenge in communities that had previously been peaceful. "Now we are seeing a communal response in areas where it has not happened before," says Ms. Wanyeki.

During a recent brutal attack, Peter says he led from behind, urging younger Mungiki members to attack Luos in the Mathare slum — a signal that Kikuyus are ready to use the same brutal methods that have been used against them. Three people were killed in that attack, and another 13 were maimed. Witnesses say Kenyan police watched the attack for hours before moving in to disperse the Mungikis.

"Usually the problem is between the two biggest tribes, the Luos and the Kikuyus, but this time it is all the other tribes against us," Peter says. "It's like we've been sitting on a time bomb, which is now exploding."

He looks toward displaced Kikuyu women, cooking beans and rice in massive caldrons. "Right now, the police are holding us back," he says. "But if we say now or never, there will be a civil war. Either they kill us or we kill them. I think we are going to win."

Full story: Kenya: infamous Mungiki sect gears up for reprisal killings

Outlawed gangs have re-emerged in some parts of Nairobi hit by violence occasioned by the disputed presidential poll.

Taliban and Mungiki gangs are active in Kariobangi, Huruma and Mathare and are believed to be responsible for some of the killings in the areas.

On Wednesday, the paramilitary General Service Unit (GSU) raided Kariobangi and conducted a door-to-door search for gang members.

Five suspects were arrested after the officers found a blood-stained machete in their hideout.

One-hour raid

Kasarani police commander Paul Ruto said they launched the one-hour raid after a man was hacked to death as he walked to work early Wednesday.

Eight people have, since Sunday night, been killed in the areas. They include gang members gunned down by police.
But residents allege the death toll is higher and many of those killed are victims of gang attacks.

The gangs, the Nation learnt, are also enjoying the support of some residents and property owners.

Not long ago they were dreaded for macabre killings.

The Mungiki gang, which went underground after a crackdown on its members, had been linked to controlled extortion rings. Its members beheaded anybody who refused to pay illegal "protection fees".

Provide security

But after the eruption of post-electoral violence, members of some communities have embraced the outlawed gangs to provide security in their territories.

No physical boundaries have been erected but some sections are no-go zones to members of particular communities.
Landlords have also been bankrolling gang members to ensure their property is not destroyed.

The property owners are also using the gangs to evict tenants who had occupied their houses forcibly at the onset of the electoral chaos.

Full story: Kenya: Outlawed gangs re-emerge in city slums to offer protection

Nairobi - A Kenyan human rights body on Wednesday accused the government of using a murderous sect to protect its supporters with the country reeling from post-election violence that had killed nearly [600] people.

Head of the state-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, Maina Kiai, said that members of the banned Mungiki, a shadowy gang mainly from President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe, were sought out for protection.

"Our monitors on the ground say that Mungiki members have told them that they have been activated to offer protection to the government supporters," Kiai said.

Government spokesperson Alfred Mutua dismissed the claim.

Mutua said: "Kiai should shut up or produce the evidence. He should carry out investigations instead of engaging in reckless talk and partisan politics."

Cops kill dozens of Mungiki members

Most Mungiki members dwell in the Nairobi slums that were the scene of some of the worst rioting after the electoral board on December 30 announced Kibaki the winner of the disputed presidential election.

The Mungiki, once a religious group of dreadlocked youths who embraced traditional rituals, had become a politically linked gang notorious for extortion and murder.

In June, police killed dozens of purported Mungiki members blamed for a wide range of crimes, including grisly beheadings that horrified the nation.

Kenyan opposition chief Raila Odinga's rejection of the election outcome touched off nationwide rioting that rapidly devolved into bloody tribal vendettas, pitting pro-Odinga and pro-Kibaki communities.

Much of the fighting took place in the Rift Valley province, home to a mosaic of tribes, and known as an "Arc of Fire" owing to repeated tribal fighting during electoral periods.

"Reports from the Rift Valley indicate that the killing was carried out by organised militia," Kiai said.

Foreign governments had intensified diplomatic efforts in order to keep Kenya from sliding into chaos. The crisis had damaged Kenya's safe reputation in an unstable region of Africa.

Full story: Kenya government accused of using murderous sect

NAIROBI, Kenya: As many as 8,040 young Kenyans have been executed or tortured to death since 2002 during a five-year police crackdown on an outlawed sect, according to a report by a group of Kenyan lawyers.

A further 4,070 young men have gone missing between August 2002 and August 2007 after being held in police custody, said the report by the Oscar Foundation Free Legal Aid Clinic-Kenya released Saturday.

The report does not offer evidence on who was responsible for the deaths and disappearances but said most of the missing were last seen in police custody.

Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe dismissed the report as "a document not worth responding to."

"It is fictitious and the people disseminating it have a questionable character and motive," Kiraithe told The Associated Press.

Police began a crackdown on a sect called Mungiki when it was outlawed in March 2002 after at least 20 people were killed in fighting between it and a rival gang.

Mungiki claims to have thousands of adherents, all drawn from the Kikuyu, Kenya's largest tribe. The group, whose name means "multitude" in the Kikuyu language, was inspired by the bloody Mau Mau rebellion.

Mungiki began as a group promoting traditional Kikuyu practices, including female genital mutilation, but gradually became involved in extortion, murder and providing hired muscle to politicians.

The report is based on interviews with relatives, police records of when the young men were in police custody, autopsy reports and other records kept by the campaigning group, said the foundation's executive director, Kamau Kingara. The group began by offering legal help to people living with AIDS six years ago, but over the years has taken on other cases.

This latest report follows one from the state-funded Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights released earlier this month that linked police to the deaths of more than 450 young men in the past five months in a crackdown on Mungiki.

That report did not explicitly blame the police for the deaths, but said "circumstantial evidence" linked the police to the killings and said the force seemed to be blocking efforts to find the killers.

A Mungiki leader, Gitau Njenga, said that a clique within President Mwai Kibaki's administration was using the police to perpetrate the killings of suspected Mungiki adherents.

Njenga also denied the group was responsible for the killings earlier this year of more than 27 people, many of whom were beheaded.

"The Mungiki has nothing to do with the beheadings ... the police should investigate the true perpetrators of these crimes. They have the machinery," Njenga said.

The allegations and denials of police brutality come at a sensitive time. President Kibaki is seeking re-election this December.

His biggest challenger, Raila Odinga, has promised to rid the country of Mungiki within a month if he is elected president.

Mungiki members threatened to disrupt the elections and circulated leaflets in July calling on Kenyan youth to rise up against the government.

The government has already launched a campaign against electoral violence, featuring children orphaned by political thugs. There have already been several election-related attacks on politicians and their supporters.

Njenga told The Associated Press the group wants to reconcile with the government.

"Why should we fight for 19 years like (Ugandan rebel leader Joseph) Kony or the Southern Sudan rebels and then eventually sit down to discuss peace?" Njenga said. "We want to discuss peace with the government now."

Full story: 8,040 young Kenyans executed during police crackdown on outlawed sect: report

NAIROBI, Kenya: More than 450 young Kenyan men have been executed in the last 5 months, said a report Monday by a state-funded national human rights group whose head also questioned why police had not stopped the killings.

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights linked the slayings to a war between police and a violent street gang accused of a string of beheadings and fatal shootings earlier this year.

The state-funded commission's preliminary report stopped short of directly blaming the police for the deaths, but said the notoriously corrupt force was linked by "circumstantial evidence." Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe slammed the allegation as "total nonsense."

The group said the majority of the deceased were shot in the head before being deposited in mortuaries around the country. The victims were all from Kenya's largest ethnic group, the Kikuyu, and lived in the tribe's traditional strongholds north of Nairobi and several slums in the capital.

The violent Mungiki gang, an outlawed quasi-political sect, draws its support from thousands of unemployed Kikuyu youth. Mungiki, whose name means "multitude" in Kikuyu, has been linked in recent years to extortion, murder and political violence. Its members also promote traditional Kikuyu practices, including female genital mutilation.

"The obvious question to ask is, if the police are themselves not responsible, why have they been unwilling or unable to investigate and curb the killings?" said the commission's chairman, Maina Kiai. He said police had been lax in following up tips passed on by residents, and refused to collect some of the bodies after their presence had been reported, leaving them to hyenas and other wild animals.

"Which citizen or organized criminal group would have the wherewithal and courage to ferry corpses for dumping on our roads, which are mounted with police checks after every few kilometers on a 24 hours basis?" asked Kiai.

During its investigations, the commission said it had met "all layers of the police hierarchy with obfuscation, stonewalling, disinterest and outright denial of any knowledge of the killings and dumping of the bodies."

Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said: "We invite anybody who have information about any killings to come to us. We will investigate it." He declined to comment on the commission's figure of 454 Kenyans killed in execution-style murders or provide a police tally.

The government outlawed Mungiki in 2002 after its members beheaded 21 people in a Nairobi slum following a turf war with a rival group called the Taliban, which drew its members from the Luo community.

The commission said it had established that 454 bodies were registered in city mortuaries between June and Oct. 22. Most were identified as "unknown" people, despite relatives having claimed some of the bodies.

The report called on the government to put measures into place to prevent any further executions or disappearances and urged it to establish an international panel of police experts to investigate the killings, catch the perpetrators and grant victims or their families adequate reparations.

Full story: Over 450 Kenyans died in execution-style killings in 5 months, says rights group

Nairobi - Kenyan police arrested eight members of a banned sect, blamed for a string of murders and beheadings, while taking an illegal oath in the capital, said an official on Wednesday.

The suspects, who belonged to the Mungiki sect, were nabbed in the capital's Korogocho slums overnight on Tuesday, said Nairobi divisional police commander Paul Ruto.

He said: "The sect members had slaughtered a goat ready to undertake what is thought to be an oath associated with Mungiki.

"We also recovered other paraphernalia, including machetes, usually associated with the sect."

The new arrests came as a state-run human rights panel said it was probing disappearances and executions of people, whose bodies had been recovered in bushlands in Nairobi's southern outskirts in recent weeks.

Residents said uniformed police dumped some of at least a dozen bodies found around Kiserian settlement after shooting them at close range, Kenya's Daily Metro newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Maina Kiai, the head of state-run Kenya National Commission of Human Rights, said: "We have found evidence that some people have been executed, but we do not know by who.

"We also have reports that some people have disappeared. We are in a process of collecting data and at the same time probing the incidents."

Police dismissed the claims, widely reported in local newspapers, that security forces were killing suspects linked to Mungiki, a politically-linked gang that was banned in 2002.

National police spokesperson Erick Kiraithe said: "This is an outrageous lie. You know this is an election year and people can say anything."

Once a religious group of dreadlocked youths who embraced traditional rituals, authorities said the Mungiki sect had morphed into a ruthless gang blamed for criminal activities including extortion and murder.

Since March, the gang had been accused of murdering at least 43 people - beheading several of their victims - mainly in Nairobi slums and central Kenya.

The wave of killings peaked in June, raising fears of widespread instability in Kenya ahead of general elections due in December, but a police crackdown that killed dozens of Mungiki suspects had since curbed the violence.

Full story: Mungiki sect members held for murders