Date: Sat, 14 Mar 2009 08:44:28 -0700 [03/14/2009 10:44:28 AM CDT]
From: Judy Miriga
Subject: Solution is to Dismantle Police force & Put its Leadership behind bars awaiting Charges
Folks,
The Police and the Mungiki with diverse interests supporting different leaders (those in power) have many faces focusing to 2012, both are trying to get the other out of race by lethal force and threats. Each and everyone is trying to outdo the other through blame game come 2012. Both the Police and Mungiki are in quagmire. They are soon turning Kenya to a battlefield. To them, it is better Kenya go cheotic than democracy and the rule of law take effect. Then the Sovereignty of Kenya remains in the hands of the winning rebel group.
This is why, the likes of Barrack Muluka wants Koffie and Annan out of Kenya, so they resolve their own issues ati Annan should leave Kenya alone and go back to Geneva, ati Kenya is a Sovereign Country………Sovereign what?????? We are not stupid……
Thanks,
Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson &
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com/
(Click and enjoy African Heritage Music)
Residents’ ordeal under police and Mungiki terror
By Standard on Saturday Team
Josephine Wanjiku (not her real name) believes she knows her husband’s killers but she dare not say a word.
Two years ago, a suspected Mungiki gang killed her husband and his head was found near his home in Kahuro village, Murang’a South District.
“We know them and the gang leaders but no one in the village can dare identify them,” says Wanjiku. The re-emergence of the sect in parts of Central Province has sent a new wave of panic.
Picture this: A man is beheaded on his way to church and body thrown into a river; a tout is killed and body dumped in a church compound; and an elderly man is killed outside his house as his wife watches.
Police have responded with equal zeal, dragging suspected Mungiki members from their hideouts and reportedly shooting them dead.
In Kahuro, shopping centres that used to bubble with business are almost deserted.
Young men left villages in droves for fear of police crackdown. Locals are torn between supporting police and complying with the sect rules.
Mungiki attacks appear calculated to cause maximum fear. When they killed Wanjiku’s husband, they perched his head on a stick by the roadside. His torso was mutilated and limbs and private parts were severed from the body.
“My husband left the house at around 6pm to deliver milk to the nearby shopping centre but never came back,” says Wanjiku.
Self-imposed curfews
Another victim was beheaded and his head left in a chicken coop, just a few metres from a chief’s camp.
Villagers are always alert for it is never known when the killer gang will strike next.
“We live in fear. Even now, we fear speaking to you. There is self-imposed curfew,” says a shopkeeper at Kianjogu market in Murang’a. But as the families lament the loss of their kin in the hands of Mungiki, relatives of suspected sect members reportedly killed by the police are also crying for justice. For instance, Mr Irungu Macharia’s son, Julius Kiunjuri, was shot dead by police on suspicion of taking part in the beheadings.
Macharia claims police executed his son in cold blood, having traced him in Nairobi.
They later took him to his Kahithe village where they shot him dead: “They claimed he was the ring leader of the murderous sect and that he was a dangerous criminal,” says Macharia.
“Police even destroyed one of my houses and beat me up when they came looking for him,” says the 50-year-old man.
A few months after Kahuro killings, residents claim police executed about 30 young men in Gikui village, Kangema, for allegedly taking part in illegal oathing.
For instance, the family of Michael Kamau is crying foul over what they term police execution of their son.
“We were shocked to find his body dumped near the trading centre. People claimed he belonged to Mungiki,” says one of Kamau’s relative.
“If people are suspected to have committed a crime, they ought to face the law,” he adds.
Jane Njeri does not understand why her family was targeted. She also lost her husband in a suspected Mungiki killing.
When her 12-year-old son ran into the house to inform her people were being hacked to death in the neighbourhood two years ago, she brushed him off.
Harrowing tales
Little did she know her family would be next. Later in the night, she received news the headless body of her husband was lying a few metres from the compound.
The killings were rampant in several villages in Murang’a and other parts of Central Province.
Njeri told her harrowing story to UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial killings Prof Philip Alston. This was a day after suspected Mungiki sect members paralysed transport in several towns across the country.
“I am surprised he is castigating the police without taking into account our sorrows. The man did not listen to our story,” says Njeri.
However, residents are not taking it lying down. In Ihithe village, Kiharu, locals have formed vigilante groups.
“Every homestead contributes Sh50 every month to facilitate the vigilantes since we don’t want a repeat of what happened,” says a resident.
1. On Saturday March 14, 2009, 6:53 AM , Carter John, Kenya wrote:
Pole my fellow Kenyan. Am sorry but I would propose these pple to be gunned down and be completely eliminated. I agree that the police should take the suspects to face the law but themselves dont take pple to the law but take the law in their hands I think its time, a hand for a hand and an eye for an eye let the community assist the forces to wipe those youths out.
On Saturday March 14, 2009, 4:21 AM , John, Kenya wrote:
I am not surprised at the story. I have gone through some of the daring misfortunes in the hands of Mungiki. When the first kidnapped me and forced me in to taking their oath, life after that was terrible. I can not recount how many times I escaped the beheading after the forced oath but the next thing I knew, I had left Kenya. I am now self-exiled in an abroad country
‘Standard’ editor to attend Geneva talks
Published on 28/02/2009
By Standard on Saturday Reporter
The Standard Group News Editor Ben Agina has been invited to join the Grand Coalition Government partners President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga in Geneva for talks organised by Kofi Annan Foundation.
The meeting, “The Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation: One Year Later”, will also be attended by Panel of Eminent African Personalities led by former UN chief Kofi Annan, former Tanzania President Benjamin Mkapa and former Mozambique and South Africa First Lady Graca Machel between March 30 and 31.
Also invited are Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation team comprising Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi and Cabinet ministers Martha Karua, Mutula Kilonzo, Moses Wetangula, Sam Ongeri, James Orengo, William Ruto and Sally Kosgei
The Geneva meeting will focus on Agenda Four, which was supposed to institute long-term solutions to avoid future post-poll chaos. It was also to address the thorny issues of land reforms, the stalled constitutional review, fight against graft and impunity, among others.