Mungiki: Can Kenyans Handle The Truth?

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The Mungiki movement first reared its' ugly head in 2000.

The timing speaks volumes. President Daniel Arap Moi was serving his last three years in office and was expected to hand over power to a new president in 2002. It was a time of great uncertainty and fear in the country because Kenya the coming scenario was unprecedented. There had never been a situation before where the all-powerful president of Kenya had handed over power. Many believed that Moi would come
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Also published today

Why Mungiki is the hungry lion somebody forgot to feed

Quip of the day
Democracy don't rule the world, You'd better get that in your head; This world is ruled by violence, But I guess that's better left unsaid.
Bob Dylan (American folksinger, b.1941)
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up with some excuse to extend his presidency. And even if he did hand over power it looked like the results would still be chaos because the opposition had never managed to agree on a single presidential candidate. It was much more unlikely that they would do this, this time round when Moi was clearly not going to be a candidate.

The first thing that Kenyans noticed was that the Mungiki sect seemed to be untouchable. It was clear that they had very powerful backing because even the police seemed to fear to take any action.

In one of the rare peaceful demonstrations that the sect has had, which took place sometime in 2002, the group declared support for Uhuru Kenyatta as a presidential candidate. Uhuru hurriedly issued a statement distancing himself from the group.

Political analysts theorized that the group had been formed as a private army to take care of certain powerful interests in the country. But one thing everybody was sure of was that Mungiki had the backing of the government. This was further confirmed in 2003 when it emerged that members of Mungiki had obtained military land rovers fully armed and with sophisticated communication equipment for use during the 2002 campaign period. It was clear such a move would have required clearance from the very top. Not even a cabinet minister would have had the authority to allow for such a dangerous stunt.

But what were the objectives of the sect? This is the part of the whole Mungiki mystery that has puzzled analysts for a long time. However it was clear that inspiration for the movement came from a snuff-taking religious/political movement that had been formed in 1992 called the Tent of the Living God whose objective was to take back members of the Kikuyu tribe to traditional worship practices. Some shrewd Kanu hawk had no doubt seen the usefulness of such a group in helping fulfill selfish political ends.

There are those who speculate that the intention of the Moi government was to divide the Kikuyus and ensure that unity became more and more difficult to achieve. Those who in this school of thought point to the preoccupation the Moi administration always had in "dealing with the Kikuyu" whom they always saw as a serious threat to the Moi presidency. They also point to the fact that the Mau Mau movement in the 50s that has uncanny similarities with Mungiki (including the appetite that has been displayed in recent times of beheading people) failed because it divided the Kikuyu community right down the middle. Moderates felt that the group was too radical to achieve much while long suffering realists saw the need to use violence if only to get powerful forces in London to start paying attention to the Kenyan situation. Then there was the fact that the Mau Mau never fought for Kenyan independence but were in fact a land freedom army. Their intention was to have the prime land grabbed from then by the colonial administration, returned.