Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

KENYA: Revenge Attacks on Mungiki Sect

KENYA: Revenge Attacks on Mungiki Sect Pitched battles in the centre of the country cause over thirty deaths. Tens of people were stoned and hacked to death when local residents in the central town of Karatina formed posses to flush out the outlawed Mungiki gang, police said on April 21st. The clashes started late on April 20th when residents organised in small groups armed with crude weapons decided to fight back against the Mungiki, a violent mafia‐like extortionist group famous for beheading and skinning its victims. “At night, the groups of locals started attacking some of the youths they suspected to be Mungiki members and slashed some of them to death,” Kenyan police spokesman Eric Kiraithe told AFP . Police sources said at least three people were wounded and 37 suspects arrested. Kiraithe said the town and its surrounding area turned into a battlefield as Mungiki regrouped and fought back. Members of the public apparently ganged up to resist a Mungiki move to expel all residents of Kirinyaga from Karatina, Kiraithe said. “All of those killed were hacked or stoned to death. Our officers tried to restore order, otherwise the situation could have degenerated into something much worse,” the police spokesman added. At least 15 suspected Mungiki members had been hacked, stoned or burned to death by mobs in the area over the previous 10 days. Kiraithe said the police had urged the local population “to refrain from lynching suspects”. They should hand them over to the police, he said. Karatina is north of Nairobi, on the road to the city of Nyeri, in the heartland of the dominant Kikuyu tribe. (AFP 21/4) President Mwai Kibaki vowed to punish the perpetrators. He described the killings as “heinous crimes” and “a matter of great concern” to Kenya and ordered the Interior Minister George Saitoti “to get to the root cause”. The Daily Nation , Nairobi reported on April 28th that twenty suspected Mungiki members had been arrested following the killings. Maina Njenga , the Mungiki sect leader was released in late April after his successful appeal on a five year jail sentence only to be re‐arrested a few minutes later. (Daily Nation, Nairobi 28, 30/4) Human rights activist killed p. 17900 http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Africa Research Bulletin: Political, Social and Cultural Series Wiley

KENYA: Revenge Attacks on Mungiki Sect

Download PDF
1 page

Loading next page...
 
/lp/wiley/kenya-revenge-attacks-on-mungiki-sect-7uIO0yM5Ue

References (0)

References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
© Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2009
ISSN
0001-9844
eISSN
1467-825X
DOI
10.1111/j.1467-825X.2009.02331.x
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Pitched battles in the centre of the country cause over thirty deaths. Tens of people were stoned and hacked to death when local residents in the central town of Karatina formed posses to flush out the outlawed Mungiki gang, police said on April 21st. The clashes started late on April 20th when residents organised in small groups armed with crude weapons decided to fight back against the Mungiki, a violent mafia‐like extortionist group famous for beheading and skinning its victims. “At night, the groups of locals started attacking some of the youths they suspected to be Mungiki members and slashed some of them to death,” Kenyan police spokesman Eric Kiraithe told AFP . Police sources said at least three people were wounded and 37 suspects arrested. Kiraithe said the town and its surrounding area turned into a battlefield as Mungiki regrouped and fought back. Members of the public apparently ganged up to resist a Mungiki move to expel all residents of Kirinyaga from Karatina, Kiraithe said. “All of those killed were hacked or stoned to death. Our officers tried to restore order, otherwise the situation could have degenerated into something much worse,” the police spokesman added. At least 15 suspected Mungiki members had been hacked, stoned or burned to death by mobs in the area over the previous 10 days. Kiraithe said the police had urged the local population “to refrain from lynching suspects”. They should hand them over to the police, he said. Karatina is north of Nairobi, on the road to the city of Nyeri, in the heartland of the dominant Kikuyu tribe. (AFP 21/4) President Mwai Kibaki vowed to punish the perpetrators. He described the killings as “heinous crimes” and “a matter of great concern” to Kenya and ordered the Interior Minister George Saitoti “to get to the root cause”. The Daily Nation , Nairobi reported on April 28th that twenty suspected Mungiki members had been arrested following the killings. Maina Njenga , the Mungiki sect leader was released in late April after his successful appeal on a five year jail sentence only to be re‐arrested a few minutes later. (Daily Nation, Nairobi 28, 30/4) Human rights activist killed p. 17900

Journal

Africa Research Bulletin: Political, Social and Cultural Series – Wiley

Published: May 1, 2009

There are no references for this article.