sometime in the last half of the 90’s a group of ‘moralists’ stole the national lime light for their passion of undressing what they considered incompletely dressed women. women would not be allowed to wear trousers, tight fitting clothes or mini-skirts in the streets of kenya, they argued. many were quick to dismiss them as a group of rowdy touts but as their actions escalated to major towns, there was cause for alarm.

elaborate expose’ of the group’s ritual and initiation ceremonies hit our screens and many thought it was the ‘thaai’ sect led by ngonya wa gakonya, now deceased, that many were familiar with. ‘thaai’ was a kikuyu religious sect that advocated a return to the worship of the kikuyu god, ‘mwene-nyaga’. mwene-nyaga (he who owns the ostriches) was worshipped under the mugumo (oak?) tree facing the snow-capped mount kirinyaga (has ostriches), now known as mount kenya, the tallest mountain in kenya. you would recognize the ‘thaai’ group by the way they rebelled against modernism by clothing in hide-made clothes and sandals. they had long dreadlocks akin to the maumau liberation fighters and were committed to sniffing the traditional tobacco ‘snuff’.

kenyans were wrong, the new grouping on their screens was no harmless worshippers. they were zealous in their anarchy business and had taken over the matatu sector for a while by the time they became public. you had to pay up to 60,000 kenya shillings or more as entry fee to operate your matatu in the routes they controlled. in addition you had to pay a daily protection fee. they were available for hire to cause terror and scare during political campaigns. they were no longer jeshi la mzee or jeshi la embakasi. they were mungiki and they had their nairobi base at the heart of eastlands, mainly dandora.

mungiki according to michuki, the internal security minister is a kikuyu word pronounced ‘muingi ki’ meaning ‘all people without exception’. their initiation rites include taking ‘muma’ or ‘oath’which binds the recruits to the ideals of this terror group and includes high penalties for defaulters: their clean shaven head! mungiki is also notorious for advocating forced female circumcision, otherwise regularized as female genital mutilation. their insatiable thirst for blood ensures that once a mungiki follower draws out a sword in an attack, it cannot go back to its sheath without being soaked in blood.

a story is told of how they terrorized an upcountry town after one of their own was set on fire by the public. one mungiki follower met an old man who was fleeing, drew out a sword ready to go for the old man’s neck as trained but sympathized with the grandpa. however he could not take back his sword without blood, so he asked the old man which part of his body needed trimming. the man chose the hand and the sword executed the ruling. any village that has been visited by the followers remains traumatized for long, daily reminded of the havoc the sect lives behind in form of deaths and maiming.

the grapevine has it that the sect was formed during the mid eighties after the 1982 coup and got entrenched when the government of the time cracked its whip on mwakenya ‘dissidents’. a few years ago, i once sat and listened as a mungiki follower who was then a university student detailed how the sect operates and came into being. that was before the 2002 elections.

when in the early 90’s some parts of the rift valley were engulfed in tribal clashes which mainly affected the kikuyu community, the 80’s group was revived by young kikuyu men of the area in an attempt to forge a resistance to the blood shed that was being directed at the community.

they went into the forest where oath was administered by old men who participated in previous oaths. the mandate was to protect the community from further deaths. however, before the group had time to fully stamp their authority in the region, the clashes ended. unfortunately, many youths were still jobless as kenya faced an economic depression then. having no sources of income and with the rural urban migration turning a disappointment, the group turned to uncivil means of generating income. to survive, the group redefined its mission and coalesced around traditional religious teachings. it was to later redesign its mission to that of thuggery and extortionist, the matatu industry being a prime target for its lawlessness and loads of cash.

mungiki sect was able to attract the high and the mighty in the land with its following, penetrating the rank and file of key security sectors in kenya. politicians would hire them to cause fright and flight of their rivals. the police would not deter them as the group was worth tens of millions a day which was enough to keep the police on their side. it was no wonder to find that the 2003 government tried in vain to recover ex-army and ex-police land rovers which had being sold to the group prior to the 2002 elections.

ndura waruinge, became identified as the national chairman of the group and steered the group to more dreadful missions. oath taking became a serious affair and deserters were beheaded. ndura has since “seen the light” and is now a pastor of a church in nairobi. no doubt jesus saves lives. however, the question in the minds of many is how come he has escaped the wrath of his former servants, when they continue to behead other deserters? this will be his great undoing as he eyes and goes for the langata seat, currently being held by raila odinga. what a tall order?

maina njenga took up the mantle of revulsion from waruinge and is currently being charged in the courts while being held at the kamiti maximum prison. he and 30 others were caught last year in a kitengela ‘palace’ with illicit brew, oath taking paraphernalia and a flag belonging to the kenya national youth alliance (kenya) political party. the house has been under guard since then. ‘kenya’ party demonstrated last month for the release of what they termed as the only political prisoner in kenya today, maina njenga! how times change! maina njenga also ‘saw the light’ last week and is bent on following the footsteps of ndura waruinge. or is it meant to hoodwink the authorities? he truly came to save the lost and set the captives free.

what is the government doing to curb this group from unleashing more terror to hapless kenyans? 2007 is an election year when chaos and anarchy tend to thrive. this group needs to be stopped in its tracks. this year, it has been linked to the deathly confrontation of the police and the hawkers. the hawkers pay protection fee to this group and ‘licenses’ to operate in nairobi streets. the recent skirmishes in various nairobi slums have been linked to a clash of mungiki and other emergent gangs fighting over their turfs. slum dwellers have to pay this group to access basic facilities.

today, you cannot drive into dandora and some parts of kariobangi in eastlands without paying some fee. and you have to be out before dusk lest you encounter their wrath. some parts of central kenya are aware of the terror that the gang leaves in its wake whenever they go to bury one of their own. worse still the mungiki death signature of disembering various parts of their victim and leaving them in symmetric distance or a clean shaven head of a be-headed renegade is traumatic to all.

in 2003 when faced with the gigantic rise and rise of the mungiki, the then internal security minister, chris murungaru is rumoured to have authorized the “smoking off” of the mungiki followers in their bunkers. hundreds of mungikians suffocated to death in their foxholes! i leave that for the archaeologists to disapprove, prove and marvel at the history makers who turned into the millennium.

when all is said and done, who will protect the fearful kenyans from their own vicious, barbaric and heartless sons and daughters in the name of mungiki?