Mungiki: Saitoti accuses Central leaders of silence

By David Ochami

Internal Security Minister George Saitoti blamed MPs from the Mungiki-affected areas of a conspiracy of silence.

Prof Saitoti who was speaking in Parliament during a heated debate as MPs responded to his ministerial statement on the Mungiki-related killings in part of Central Province warned MPs that Mungiki was not a simple matter and that it had the potential of escalating into a crisis.

Prof Saitoti spoke on a day that the final report of the United Nations Rapporteur on Human rights Philip Alston on Kenya was released ahead of its official launch next week.

In the report, Alston calls for the sacking of Attorney General Amos Wako as well as Police Commissioner Major-General Hussein Ali. In Parliament, the matter of killings by Mungiki and vigilante groups was referred to a parliamentary committee due to conflicting death statistics.

While Saitoti says 26 people were killed, Ms Martha Karua (Gichugu, PNU) maintains that 43 were killed.

Karua tabled a document detailing names of the dead, where and when they were killed.

Temporary Speaker Margaret Kamar directed that the Parliamentary Committee on Administration and National Security investigate the killings.

Prof Saitoti and Karua clashed in their accounts of the events of April 20 and April 21 when Mungiki suspects went on a killing spree in what was allegedly a retaliatory attack against vigilantes.

Whereas the former Justice minister claimed the people of Kirinyaga Central were living under a reign terror under State-sponsored vigilante groups, the minister alleged order has been restored and special anti-Mungiki security forces deployed.

Massacred lot

They differed regarding the number of people killed during the massacre, whether the rule of law has been suspended in central Kenya and if the Intelligence service, Provincial Administration and other security agencies were complicit in the bloody events.

Saitoti enumerated Mungiki’s alleged bloody campaigns against local people apparently to state the cult’s macabre traits and rationalise the peoples "spontaneous uprising" on April 20.

But Karua held that the ministry was manipulating figures and information to distort the truth.

She called for investigation and reprimanded the local DC and Intelligence but Saitoti defended them.

MPs rallied behind Karua and questioned the Government’s willingness to tackle insecurity and organised crime and intercept intelligence, prompting Mr Danson Mungatana (Garsen, Narc-K) to demand a parliamentary investigation.

Saitoti gave a ministerial statement that began with a historical narrative of Mungiki’s extortion, rape, abduction and murder in Central Province.

He then rebuked local leaders and accused them of a "conspiracy of silence" on a matter he claimed "could destroy this country".

He said Mungiki retreated to the region after it was driven out of Nairobi by a security crackdown in 2007. The sect then took over Kirinyaga and held locals hostage.

He claimed vigilantes launched an uprising on April 20 and killed 15 Mungiki members. The gang retaliated and slew eleven people the next day.

Mr Fred Kapondi (Mt Elgon, ODM) said the Government cannot extricate itself from the collapse of law and order. Mr Ekwe Ethuro (Turkana Central, PNU) claimed security agents in Central had declared war on youth in the name of fighting Mungiki.

 

 

Read all about: George Saitoti Parliament Central Province United Nations Rapporteur Philip Alston

 

 

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