- Title: KENYA: Kenyan police make arrests as Mungiki gang take to streets
- Date: 14th April 2008
- Summary: (BN10) DANDORA, KENYA (APRIL 14, 1008) (REUTERS) POLICE WALKING ON STREET STREWN WITH RUBBLE GROUP OF POLICE WALKING ON STREETS VARIOUS OF POLICE ARRESTING LOCALS MORE OF POLICE AND INJURED MAN RECEIVING TREATMENT MAN BEING HELPED INTO AMBULANCE AMBULANCE DEPARTING FOR HOSITPAL VARIOUS OF LOCAL CHIEFS OFFICE AFTER BEING BURNT OUT
- Embargoed: 29th April 2008 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Kenya
- Country: Kenya
- Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
- Reuters ID: LVA316GR0IRCTS0WT6HSG37D8M0P
- Story Text: Kenya's most feared criminal gang paralysed transport on Monday (April 14), posing an early challenge to a power-sharing cabinet formed to end post-election deadlock.
Up to seven people were killed when the Mungiki gang shut down roads in the capital Nairobi and the Rift Valley town of Naivasha in a gesture of anger after the beheading of its leader's wife, local media reported.
The discovery of the headless body of Virginia Nyakio, wife of jailed gang leader Maina Njenga, on Thursday (April 10) had prompted fears that the ruthless group would unleash reprisal killings.
"I was on my way to Mombasa from Uganda, at about six this morning when I got here I found men with clubs and machetes and they forced us to block the road - they took our ignition keys and disappeared," said truck driver Denis Njue.
Police are yet to comment and it was not clear if the action had political implications.
But it gave a foretaste of the problems facing the new coalition cabinet named on Sunday (April 13) by President Mwai Kibaki after six weeks of political tension.
In the capital, the streets were empty of the matatu minibuses that normally clog its roads. Residents were stranded as throngs of gang youths ordered bus drivers not to move and burned several vehicles.
"They have burnt this one, they have burnt three more at the petrol station, two more on the other end. That comes to six and the total is eight, they have destroyed everything that came their way," said a resident whose car was burnt.
In the capital, the streets were empty of the matatu minibuses that normally clog its roads. Residents were stranded as throngs of gang youths ordered bus drivers not to move, confiscating their car keys and burned several vehicles.
The gang last year launched a campaign of terror with dozens of beheadings and murders, prompting a brutal police crackdown in which at least 100 people and 11 police officers were killed.
The Mungiki is the east African nation's version of the mafia, running protection rackets that reap millions of shillings a day from the minibus transport industry that is Kenya's public transportation lifeline, police say.
Like nearly all ethnic gangs in Kenya, they often provide muscle-for-hire to politicians and were blamed for murders and forced circumcisions during election violence that killed at least 1,200 people and uprooted 300,000 more. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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