Mungiki unleashes terror on village

When a convoy of more than 500 motorbikes stormed out of Kerugoya Stadium in Kirinyaga County on April 21, 2009, there was palpable fear of bloodshed.

The bikes were ferrying nearly 1,000 fiercely-armed vigilantes, also known as Kenda Kenda, enroute to Karatina town, in the neighbouring Nyeri County, to deliver a message to members of the outlawed Mungiki sect – that they should not do anything stupid on Kirinyaga soil.

Little did they know that this would later result in the cold-blood murder of 25 people at a remote village beside the Mount Kenya Forest.

The gruesome 2am massacre at Gathaithi village in Nyeri – orchestrated by Mungiki adherents – was in retaliation to the “motorbike road trip” and the sporadic attacks of Mungiki followers by the Kirinyaga-based Kenda Kenda vigilante group.

It had been agreed among the vigilantes – as they set off from Kirinyaga – that the motorbikes’ convoy would only serve as a “peaceful demonstration” and that they would not kill that day, even after getting to Karatina town where the enemy was believed to be hiding.

Earlier, in just a week, the vigilante group had gruesomely executed 14 Mungiki followers in Kirinyaga – and forcibly evicted the outlawed sect from the county.

Tension had been simmering between the two groups – and the vigilantes wanted to forestall any Mungiki retaliatory attack on Kirinyaga soil.

Unfortunately, on this day when Kenda Kenda wanted to issue the “stern warning”, Mungiki members got an “Intel” that the vigilantes were taking the war to their doorstep at Karatina town.

And so as soon as the motorbikes rolled into the town – just past the junction to Kiangai – Mungiki sect members started pelting them with stones. In the ensuing confusion, some of the vigilantes, for fear of losing their motorbikes, started fleeing the scene.

The Mungiki adherents managed to confiscate one of the motorbikes and damaged it by pounding its fuel tank with huge stones.

Kenda Kenda, too, were angry that things had not gone as planned and so when they encountered a Mungiki affiliated tout heading to Karatina, they hacked him to death.

This angered the Mungiki sect members who vented their anger on an ill-prepared remote village located on the Kirinyaga-Nyeri border. Somehow, news reached Mathaithi and Kiaruhiu – located near the Mount Kenya Forest – that Mungiki sect members were planning an attack there.

Hurriedly, men in the area mobilised a Kenda Kenda- affiliated vigilante group and code-named it “Bantu” – the word that they would use to identify each other in case disaster struck.

These youths were patrolling the villages when they heard screams of “fire, fire” from an ostensibly distressed family whose house was up in flames.

The thought that they were guarding the village against a deadly, murderous gang did not cross the vigilantes’ minds as they rushed to the scene to put out the fire. As they got there, they were surrounded by Mungiki sect members who called out the same “Bantu” code name to identify members of the vigilante group and grisly killed them.

At the end of the horror, the Mungiki adherents had slaughtered 18 men before proceeding to Kiaruhiu village where they gruesomely killed another seven.