The Mungiki Factor

By Standard Team

Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Head of Civil Service Mr Francis Muthaura organised and coordinated Party of National Unity's Mungiki reprisals attacks in Nakuru and Naivasha, Prosecution claimed on Thursday.

The then Police Commissioner Maj-Gen (Rtd) Hussein Ali, who the Prosecution argued took orders from Muthaura and confessed so to Waki Commission, allegedly gave the Mungiki militia a ‘free zone’ to carry out the mayhem in the specified hotspots by looking the other way when they were being transported.

Once PNU safely had power in its hands, the Prosecution claimed, the next phase of killings targeting Mungiki leaders so as to silence them, started in earnest.

To illustrate the complicity between the police who are State agents and the illegal outfit, the Prosecution argued this is the common denominator between the Kenyan case and such infamous genocidal attacks as in Darfur, Sudan where the Janjaweed militia is claimed to have been bolstered and facilitated by the Sudanese government.

Such was the organizational capacity and depth of penetration within the State Mungiki enjoyed in Kenya during post-election violence, said the Prosecution.

Unlike during the opening session on Wednesday when Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo led his side in the court, Adesola Adeboyejo on Thursday executed his office’s duties.

During the hearings, before which the three have argued their innocence saying they were peacemakers wrongfully charged with perpetrating criminal activities, several serious crimes were repeatedly mentioned against Uhuru’s and Muthaura’s names.

They included killings, rape, persecution, forced eviction and forced circumcision.

According to the Prosecution, the planning meetings, which drew top businessmen from the Kikuyu community, were not meant to raise funds to help the displaced or defend members from community, but clearly to plan violent reprisal attacks directed at Kalenjins and Luos.

Uhuru, according to the Prosecution, held the purse strings in the organization and displayed he wielded influence over Mungiki, a fact the Prosecution claimed was discernible from the fact that he is the one who put the militia at the disposal of PNU.

The court also heard of an occasion when Muthaura allegedly ordered the release of members of the proscribed Mungiki sect arrested after an illegal assembly in November 2007.

"Being the chairman of the National Security Advisory Committee and also the Secretary of the Cabinet’s Committee on Security, Muthaura was the de-jure and de-facto leader of the police force. He had authority over the police," said Ms Adeboyejo.

According to the Prosecution, the Government and PNU entered into a rapprochement agreement with the party whose Presidential candidate was Mr Mwai Kibaki, at a meeting in State House on November 26, 2007.

At no point did the Prosecution indicate if the President attended the meetings or not, but it argued among Mungiki’s preconditions for supporting PNU was Government’s end of extra-judicial killings of its members. Once the meeting ended, however, the attacks on Mungiki by State security stopped.

Confessions

On Thursday the court was taken through what the Prosecution claimed were the footprints of Mungiki in the January 2008 killings, complete with the chilling accounts of victims and witnesses who saw people pulled out of matatus and chopped to pieces at roadblocks erected by the militia.

The Prosecution also based its evidence on confessions, reportedly from Mungiki members, State security agencies such as the National Security Intelligence Service whose status reports it kept referring to, as well as the Kenya National Commission for Human Rights, the Waki Commission’s findings, and reports sourced from various arms of government.

The Prosecution also tried not only to nail the attacks on the three, but strove, as part of its evidence, to secure full trial against them, and to convince the Pre-Trial Chamber II judges that Uhuru and Muthaura attended eight meetings where the "common organisational plan" was discussed, refined and executed. In total the Prosecution referred to evidence it alleged to have secured from 12 witnesses whose credibility it vouched for.

"They (Uhuru an Muthaura) were out to keep PNU in power through every means possible, including committing crimes. The first step was to use the notorious and criminal Mungiki wing...whose supporters were invited to the meetings in State House, Nairobi Club, Blue Springs Hotel, and office of the (then) Internal Security Minister John Michuki,’’ the Prosecution argued.

The Prosecution claimed Uhuru was not only Mungiki’s chosen leader, but had also taken its secret oath and wielded power and influence over its activities.

Muthaura on the other hand, at the initial stages merely had power and influence over the police because of his role as the chair of the National Security Advisory Committee.

The argument went on that the two merged their ‘forces and resources’ to set up one terrifying force of revenge and coercion, that was then unleashed on Orange Democratic Movement supporters ostensibly to protect members of the Kikuyu community in the province. Ali’s role, it argued, was to "implement Mr Muthaura’s directive of creating a free zone for Mungiki".

"After the announcement of the Presidential results the ODM members led by Mr William Ruto, Mr Henry Kosgey and Mr Joshua Arap Sang set off their violent plan to take over power, while Mr Kenyatta and Mr Muthaura adopted an organizational plan to retaliate and keep power in the hands of PNU at any means,’’ the argument went on.

"Prosecution has confidence in all of its witnesses here, if we did not we would not have presented them,’’ was the opening declaration of the Prosecution in defence of its claims on the three and the ad hoc committee allegedly leading the violence.

Adeboyejo recounted to Judges Katerina Trendafilova and her two colleagues that Uhuru personally paid out Sh3.3 million each to the Mungiki leaders and its coordinators for the attacks.

In Michuki’s office Muthaura reportedly instructed Ali not to interfere with the Mungiki as they were working with them.

"Madam president this evidence is just a sample the accounts are well documented and supported by evidence," she added.

She told the judges that Uhuru, who allegedly had a long association with the Mungiki, dating as back as 1990’s, marshalled the outlawed group, and invited their leaders to a meeting held at State House on January 3, 2007, where they were tasked to fight alongside the police.

"Being the chairman of the National Security Advisory Committee and also the Secretary of the Cabinet’s Committee on Security Muthaura was the de-jure and de-facto leader of the police force. He had authority over the police," claimed Adeboyejo.

She said though Ali and his subordinates within the police force knew of the killings, they failed to act to ensure success of the policy.

Adeboyejo said that at the State House meeting, a Mungiki leader had demanded an assurance that police would not interfere with their activities when they descend on their targets.

Evidence

Relying on the evidence of one of the prosecution witness, whom she said is a former member of the killer gang, Adeboyejo, told the court that Muthaura called Ali from State House and informed him of the mission by Mungiki, and asked that they not be "disturbed".

Also mentioned were two politicians said to have laid the ground for Mungiki-PNU collaboration ahead of the elections and a host of accomplices referred to as "middle-level perpetrators".

Adeboyejo recounted to the court, what she termed as long ties between Uhuru and the outlawed sect, relying on the evidence of one of the suspect who claimed Mr Kenyatta has over years been a member of the group and routinely finances it.

She recollected how a meeting for the sect members held on March 3, 2002 in Nyahururu and allegedly attended by over 10,000 Mungiki members was turned into a campaign rally for the suspect, who was then contesting for the Presidency.