Kenyan Politics: Of Maina Njenga, 2013 Elections and Mutation of the Mungiki sect

Members of the Mungiki sect

Kenyan Politics: Of Maina Njenga, 2013 Election and Mutation of the Mungiki sect

By Murimi Mwangi

I was in Kirinyaga, my home county in 2009 during the bloody war between the outlawed Mungiki Sect and the Kenda Kenda Vigilante Squad, a war which had the blessings of the police and the Provincial administration.

During that bloody conflict I together with other men aged above 17 years were forced to sleep in bushes armed with pangas and other crude weapons away from the comfort of our homes for fear of Mungiki’s attack.

The imminent attack never came but iit did strike at Mathira village in Nyeri County in a grisly manner when 27 innocent Kenyans were hacked to death.

The attack and sad memories of brutality that I have personally witnessed among the sect members has given me a déjà vu with gearing up to next general elections as Mungiki sect is going to bed with politicians, a bad omen for peace.

I’ll start with Mungiki leader (I won’t use former for the sect still exists) Maina Njenga who after dubiously denouncing the sect and camouflaging as a Man of God dines with the high and mighty in the country.

Maina enjoys status despite the indelibility of the innocent blood that still stains his hands. He even met the late Muammar Gaddafi before his demise.

He has shared podiums with parliamentarians, ministers, businessmen, politicians and presidential aspirants.

With this political bed hopping with Mungiki Kenya is breeding a sect which will be more brutal than Mombasa Republican Council (MRC). This will be the worst tragedy if you consider the sect was heavily involved in the last PEV. A clear sign of political manipulation.

With the brutality of Mungiki the country should be ready to wake up to news of headless bodies and kidnapping from the sect.

To get the gist of this post I’ll start with Njenga’s current leadership at Mkenya Solidarity Movement (MSM) party, formally headed by the veteran politician GG Kariuki before he decamped it for Uhuru Kenyatta’s TNA.

Before mutating into a MSM rumours were abound of Maina Njenga weighing his options to either throw his weight behind Uhuru Kenyatta or the Prime Minister Raila Odinga presidential bids.

However, Uhuru Kenyatta, aware of the muck that Mungiki has brought to his name and his presidential bid, denounced the sect. Uhuru then immediately directed the TNA Chairman, Johnston Sakaja to reject Maina Njenga’s friend request during a press conference.

During the recent Kangema by-election that followed the demise of John Michuki, Mkenya Solidarity Movement (MSM) sponsored John Gathongo to face the PNU and TNA candidates. Kangema was considered a TNA or at least an Uhuru stronghold, so ODM declined to sponsor a candidate there.

However, the ODM still financed the MSM candidate. In appreciation of the underground ordeal between ODM and the MSM, Maina Njenga was swift to proffer his appreciation. He immediately declared he would support Raila Odinga’s presidential bid next year.

Prior to all this, Uhuru Kenyatta had received the endorsement of the GEMA association during the Limuru meeting dubbed Limuru 2.

This had angered the the Gitobu Imanyara Meru faction, so the Mungiki sect took advantage of this and staged a Limuru 2B meeting at the same venue, to denounce the endorsement of Kenyatta by the GEMA association. They did this with the support of Paul Muite, Gitobu Imanyara and a few politicians from ODM.

The ODM faction of the government pressurized the government to grant the meeting permit to the organizers of the Limuru 2B.

As it was expected the PNU arm of the government, under which the internal security ministry falls used the police to disrupt the meeting. This received massive criticism from the US and other western Embassies.

Though many might be shortsighted about this, Maina Njenga is a key player in the forthcoming elections.

The presidential campaigns for next year’s elections are built around the politicisation of the ICC, and Maina Njenga could be holding the secret key to Uhuru Kenyatta’s chances.

Uhuru is defending himself in a case at the ICC, for allegedly providing the financial and logistical support to the Mungiki during 2008 retaliatory attacks in Parts of Nairobi and the Rift Valley at the height of Kenya’s post election violence.

That ICC case is the major stumbling block to his presidential candidacy in the forthcoming elections. It is common knowledge that Raila Odinga wants Uhuru and Ruto completely off the presidential race.

And here is where Mungiki’s dalliance with either TNA or ODM looms, let’s consider the facts I’ll postulate here.



Maina Njenga

This is my justification. A high number of youths from central Kenya are Mungiki members, majority of them are poor and uneducated. Additionally, their oath of allegiance to the sect forces them to follow any decrees passed by the sect.



From this basic fact, most of them will blindly endorse the sect’s as it has happened in the past. It is the old politics of who gets what when and how!

It is my plea to the government to clear this sect because it is undergoing resurgence in many parts of central Kenya.



Recently a childhood buddy and a  Mungiki sect member called me over the phone boasting about high underground recruitment and oath taking in Katrina Town which inspired this post, but that’s a post for another day.



The writer studies communication and media at Maseno university wilsonmurimi@yahoo.com

Why fanatical support for TNA, ODM will lock out key candidates in Kikuyu, Luo area respectively

PM Raila Odinga and DPM Uhuru Kenyatta, both with their ODM and TNA parties are tribal chieftains in Luo and Kikuyu tribes respectively.

By Mwangi Wilson Murimi

I was drinking recently in a bar with a Luhya friend when our discussion took a political detour. Somewhere in the course of our conversation, I heard him mention that Kikuyus and Luos would be to blame in event that Kenya elects an inefficacious president.

I sought to know why my tribe and our lakeside brothers and sisters would carry the blame for such a national disaster. In response he said that the arrogance of the Kikuyu and Luo nations had brought the predicament of hopelessness that now stares the nation in the eye.

He told me that the Agikuyu have two of the best presidential candidates but the larger kikuyu populace has unanimously thrown their weight behind the pinnacle of kikuyu elite impunity by endorsing Uhuru Kenyatta.

According to my Luhya friend, Peter Kenneth and Martha Karua are two of the best presidential candidates for the country but the Kikuyus have refused to elevate either of the two to the Kikuyu Chiefdom, which would have automatically boosted their election to statehouse since they enjoy support across the Kenyan tribal divide.

Back in my home county of Kirinyaga where one of the presidential candidates, Martha Karua hails from, there is a general displeasure among the locals that one of their daughters has sought the presidential vote in clear disregard of the Son of Jomo whom they have already anointed president.

The general feeling there is that Martha Karua would do the country more good if she contested the Gichugu parliamentary seat or the Kirinyaga County senatorship, rather than heralding herself to political oblivion by fighting a losing battle.

The story is the same for Peter Kenneth whom the entire nation acclaims for his track record of development in his Gatanga constituency. Majority of his constituents have already endorsed him as the most preferred candidate for the Murang’a County Governorship, though they have shortsighted his presidential bid.

When Rafael Tuju was the MP for Rarieda he went to the history books of Nyanza as one of the best parliamentarians that Rariedans had ever elected. In just five years his development record was speaking for itself. Tables only turned against him when he vied his reelection on a PNU ticket, something unheard of in Nyanza.

Nothing in the world seems to convince even the Rariedans to even vote him in as MP unless he endorses Raila Odinga for the presidency, let alone his attempt to feature in the presidential ballot paper.

The case was the same with former Tetu MP and Noble Peace winner who lost her seat because she couldn't stand the wave of Kibaki's popularity and her continous call against corruption and nepotism in the government.

As I resumed drinking with another sip of my beer I realized that my Luhya friend actually had a point. If either Martha Karua or Peter Kenneth got the endorsement of the Kikuyus and Tuju got the nod of the Luo and the two candidates went for the presidency and running mate together, Kenya would have a better president than the one we are likely to vote in next year.

But Uhuru, with his rising stakes backed by his theory of the Kikuyu martyr being persecuted at The Hague will never let Kenneth or Karua sit on his Agikuyu throne. Neither will Raila abandon his Jakom’s throne to Tuju or any other Luo.

For Uhuru it is all about protecting himself being the custodian to the loot of his dad and company, and other Kikuyu and Kalenjin elite who illegitimately amassed wealth during the Moi regime.

For Raila, relinquishing the Luo chiefdom to another Luo would take from his hands the golden opportunity he has tasted in barely 5 years of handpicking family members and entrenching them into appointive positions including his own sisters brothers and cousins.

Is there something common between Raila and Uhuru? Yes, they are both merchants of impunity. While Uhuru seeks to become the gatekeeper to ensure that only members of the House of Mumbi loot the nation, Raila will leave no stone unturned to see to it that everybody from his lineage is appointed somewhere.

Now we the Kikuyus and Luos can’t endorse the better candidates for the presidential job. So why can’t Raila and Uhuru run together? They would make a winning combination with other likeminded tribal kingpins anyway.

That way they would have their way and we would resume our complaints of ‘Serikali ifanye kitu’ as we await another election to vote in troublemakers again.

The writer studies communication and media at Maseno University wilsonmurimi@yahoo.com

Kirinyaga woman openly lauds her rapists By Wilson Murimi

BY MWANGI WILSON MURIMI

A lady made a hilarious exhibition when she overtly acclaimed her rapists, terming them as the most proficient men she had ever witnessed since her husband’s death.

The widow, who sells vegetables on the Muthece market of Kirinyaga County and who is known to operate her business only in the evening, made the shocking revelation, terming the perceivably fateful day as a godsend which she had awaited for ages.

She even went on to say that she envied her colleagues who devoured honey on a daily basis, while she had to contend with her interminable crave since the death of her husband.

Her recount particularly evoked thunderous laughter when she certified her rapists’ skill as the only true match of her late husband’s stamina.

Waylaid in coffee bush

The rapists, whom she alleged had waylaid her in a coffee bush on her way home, reportedly accosted her and dragged her into the bush and carried out the contemptible act, but which she says she will live to recount.

“Ngumwira ndirathiururukagio uu nou, nii ndire ndaigua wega uguo kuma muthuri wakwa akua (I was turned over and over. I have never felt that good since my husband died),” said the woman sensationalizing her description with facetious dramatization.

The shocking account riveted many listeners most of who were her regular evening customers. The attentive audience occasionally told her to repeat some of the scenes, which she instantly did with great enthusiasm.

Lady running the show

While none of her engrossed audience made any attempt to stop her from divulging  her great exhilaration, her business rivals, most of who were angered by the inexplicably large number of customers she had attracted, openly decried her ‘open lack of manners’.

“Icio ni ndetu iriku urahiana na kwina ciana? (what sorts of stories are you narrating even among children?)” decried one rival. The outspoken lady, however, booed her detractors with an open rhetoric that the account may have been no news to the present teenagers.

Asked to disclose who her rapists were, she simply said she never marked any of their faces since she was so elated by the action to care about to discern them during the action.

While some blushed off the story as facetious, a rumour later circulated that an alcoholic duo had conducted the ordeal and had been avoiding her for fear that she would shame them. She had however openly pledged a reward to her anonymous supermen, whom she had nicknamed ‘Machineries’.

Kirinyaga: Jombi ataka kujitoa uhai baada ya kunyimwa chakula na Mwangi Wilson Murimi

Picha kutoka kwa tovuti

Kalameni mmoja katika eneo la Kirinyaga ya kati aliwashangaza wengi, pale alipotishia kujitoa uhai baada ya mzozo na bibi yake kuhusu chakula kugeukia mweleka wa kifamilia.

Mzozo huo ulianza pale jombi huyo aliporejea nyumbani nyakati za  asubuhi akiwa mlevi chakari, na kudai apewe chakula na mkewe. Hata hivyo bibi yake aliyekuwa amechoshwa na ulevi wa bwanake wa kila siku alimwambia peupe akatafute chakula kwa mama pima. “Nenda ukatafuate chakula huko unakolewa kila siku”, alisema bibi yake.

 Tamshi hilo lilimkera jombi hiyo, aliyemkaba koo mkewe alitumai kuwa hili lingempelekea kuubadili msismamo wako wa awali, lakini kinyume na matarajio yake, mkewe akinyakua ukuni na kumgonga.

Na huku jombi huyo akiachilia shingo yake, mkewe naye alimvamia kwa chochote kilichokuwa pale jikoni, zikiwemo sufuria na vikombe, jambo lililowavutia wanakijiji wengi kujitamazia mweleka wa bure.

Hakuna aliyefanya juhudi zozote kuwatengamisha wawili hao, labda kwa hofu kuwa kufanya hivyo kungeukatisha mweleka huo wa bure ambao ulikuwa ukijiri.

Katikati mwa vurumai hilo, mkewe alisikika akinung’una kuwa mmewe alizoea kutoka ulevini na kulala bila kutekeleza wajibu wake kama bwana. “Mwaname wa saa ngapi huyu, anayejilaza kama mfu?” alisema mwanamke huyo.

Mambo yalizidi unga pale, mwalimu mmjoa wa shule ya msingi kuoka eneo hilo anayedaiwa kuhusika mapenzi kisiri  na mwanamke huyo alipofika pale na kujaribu kuwatenganisha.

Mawazoni pa jombi huyo, wawili hao wakinuia kummaliza ili kupata nafasi kuendeleza uhusiano wao, ndipo akadai kuwa angejitoa uhai. “Kumbe mwatataka kuniua ndio niwaondokee na kumpa nafasi sivyo?” alisema Jombi huyo, “Afadhali nijitoe uhai mwenyewe”

Kicheko cha waliokusanyaika kilikatizwa na mshangao pale bibi yake alipodai kuwa angemhakikishia kuwa amelala pema peponi akijitia kitanzi, jambo ambalo lilimfadhaisha jombi huyo, aliyetoka na kwenda zake akidai kuwa angerejea akiwa mfu.

Mwandishi ni Mwanafunzi katika taaluma ya utangazaji na uanahabari chuoni Maseno na mhariri wa jarida la Equator Weekly