By Barry Moody
NAIROBI, Jan 9 (Reuters) – Kenya’s embattled government has activated a murderous criminal gang to protect its supporters during a bloody confrontation over disputed elections, a leading human rights activist said on Wednesday.
Maina Kiai, head of the government-funded National Commission on Human Rights, said the Mungiki, an ethnic Kikuyu gang notorious for beheading its victims, had returned.
“They are coming out again and being used by the state. We have firm evidence of that, some of their people came to us,” he said.
Government spokesman Alfred Mutua angrily denied the claim: “If there is evidence of Mungiki, he should either table it — and he had better make sure that it is the right evidence — or just shut up.”
This is not surprising, as everyone in Kenya knows, since:
- Mungiki was initially created to counter the Kalenjin “Warriors” evicting Kikuyus in 1992
- Mungiki was used by Moi and Uhuru during the 1997 and 2002 elections to terrorize others
- Most Kikuyu leaders support the Mungiki
- Mwai Kibaki has never even once spoken against the Mungiki, preferring instead to refer to some generic and nebulous “wakora”
Full Story: Kenya govt activates murder gang-activist
