When J.M. Kariuki was assassinated in 1975, a fellow prominent and radical politician was detained for referring to the assassination as an act of lions eating their own cubs.
I have lately heard some knowledgeable people and security analysts make similar references to the current Mungiki (an outlawed sect) mayhem.
What I understand by those people’s references is that the Mungiki have now turned their AK-47s, G3s, swords, machetes, knives and the rest, unto their very own followers, political financiers, clansmen and sympathisers.
Whereas natural and biological scientists will tell you why animals like lions, dogs, cats and cheetahs may resort to eating their young ones, Kenya will require highly qualified socio–political scientists to explain the latest dimension in the Mungiki terror.
If not quickly wiped out, the Mungiki killings will most likely turn out to be an all-out long-term war of revenge in the Mt Kenya region. The mayhem will end up like a Mafiosi clan wars in Italy and Latin America.
Let those who finance(d), sponsor(ed), support, follow, activate, believe in and use Mungiki sect in any way, know that one day members of that sect will turn out “to eat their own puppies and cubs”.
S.R. ATHEMBO ONYURO,
Kisumu
The style and the rate at which the police are responding to the Mungiki affair is wanting. Often, the police are brutal against any prospective source of information. This gives the Mungiki an advantage.
A resident or a business person, who needs security, would rather suffer police brutality than have their livelihood destroyed.
The police could do better by freely interacting with the people in areas known to harbor Mungiki. The police can use modern intelligent technologies, which might be lacking on the part of the sect’s organ of terror.
One thing about the sect members is that they prefer the hit and run tactics. The police have the advantage but are lax. Take, for example, the community policing strategy.
Since the sect members seem to be anywhere and everywhere, and especially in well known fleets of matatus, some of the new police recruits can pose or get employed as crew members.
With time, they will be able to contain the gang, if not wipe them out altogether. Some can be made to ‘join’ the sect to get the full intelligence of the leadership.
The police have more options like using the investigative technologies of the media. The traffic officers are a good entrance point because they interact with those gang members, who demand protection money from matatus.
PATRIDGE MUTISO,
Nairobi
I call upon the police commissioner and the minister for Internal Security to reassure Kenyans of their security.
The killings and destruction of property propagated by Mungiki adherents are unacceptable anywhere in the world.
DAVID BIRECH,
Eldoret
Do the Mungiki followers think that killing and destroying people’s property will make the Government hear their cries?
If I were them, I would march to the right people... Internal Security minister and the police commissioner, and tell them our cries. Targeting the innocent and their property will not help.
CAROL WANYOIKE,Nairobi
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