Police Arrest Mungiki Sect Leaders

The East African Standard (Nairobi)/April 16, 2004

Nairobi -- Two mungiki leaders suspected of belonging to a killer squad have been arrested as police declared yesterday they had dismantled the sect.

And a member of a gang that terrorised former Agricultural Finance Corporation managing director, Mr Gideon Toroitich, has also been arrested as the crackdown on crime intensified.

The suspects were arrested near the old OTC bus station in the city and paraphernalia used in oathing seized, Nairobi police chief Jonathan Koskei said.

Koskei said that during Wednesday's operations, police also seized a middle-aged woman suspected to be leading a gang that circumcises women by force.

Dressed in a bui bui to pass herself off as a Muslim, the woman is also suspected to be part of a gang that has been mugging people around the station, Koskei said. Her name was given only as Mama Eunice.

Police recovered more than 50 identity and voters cards thought to belong to victims either killed or mugged by the gang. A raid on their hideout netted swords, clubs, sticks, snuff, literature on the sect's beliefs and items used in oathing, Koskei said.

Koskei immediately declared that police were winning the war against the outlawed sect.