Mungiki-Woman killed as gang hunts Mungiki suspects
Saturday, 25th April 2009
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Violence escalated in Kirinyaga on Thursday as a woman was hacked to death by a vigilante group that has engaged police in a cat and mouse chase.
In an ominous sign that vigilantes hunting Mungiki have turned into death squads, they killed Ms Jane Nyaruai, the head teacher of Kiangai Primary School, in broad daylight.
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Standard Group journalists arrived before the police to find Nyaruai writhing in pain outside her smoldering house.
The incident captured on camera set the police into action, with spokesman Eric Kiraithe declaring an operation to dismantle the gangs. The incident occurred at Kiamoe village, near Kiangai trading centre.
The murderous gang that claims to be hunting members of the outlawed Mungiki had set her house and vehicle on fire before slashing her with pangas.
Numbering about 500, they proceeded to another home and asked for Mr Samuel Kinyua. They set his house on fire after establishing that he was not at home.
“We wanted to save her life by taking her to hospital, but the gang threatened us,” said a KTN journalist at the scene.
The violence follows a week of lawlessness in Kirinyaga and Nyeri East, where suspected Mungiki gang murdered 29 people on Monday night. Vigilantes have killed more than 15 people they claim to be Mungiki members.
Yesterday, it turned out a family member may have set up the slain teacher following a dispute over the estate of her late husband. Residents said the gangs are now being used to settle scores.
Kinyua’s wife, Mrs Mercy Wambui Kinyua, said a family member set up her husband. Speaking at the scene, Kiraithe said it was now clear the vigilantes were being used to fight personal vendettas. He said police did not support the vigilantes.
Meanwhile, a planned parade of organisers of Monday’s killings failed to take off in Nyeri.
Kiraithe said the law enforcers needed more time to complete their investigations.
Elsewhere, five suspected Mungiki sect members were killed in Nyahururu town as the crackdown on the sect members continued in Central Province. Two of the suspects were shot at Ziwani estate while the other three were shot at Marmanet forest.
Thursday, March 5 2009
Police clear a road that was blocked by suspected members of the outlawed Mungiki sect in Nairobi on Thursday.
The leader of an NGO which organised Mungiki protests that paralysed transport in many parts of the country on Thursday was later in the evening gunned down near the University of Nairobi.
Mr Oscar Kamau King’ara, the executive director of Oscar Foundation, an NGO with links to the Mungiki, was shot dead by unknown assailants, sparking unrest among University of Nairobi students.
Mr Kingára was in the company of a colleague, identified as a former official of the Students Union of the University of Nairobi, who was also killed.
The killing came at the end of a day when Mungiki re-asserted itself with widespread protests, paralysing transport and shutting down some towns for long periods in the course of the day. Sect members blocked roads using hijacked long haul trucks, burning barricades, and stones and forced public transport operators off the roads by intimidation. They also forced businesses to close in many parts.
The worst affected towns were Nairobi, Kiambu, Nyahururu, Nyeri, Naivasha, Embu, Nakuru and Molo, among others. In Thika, members of the public lynched two young men whom they accused of being Mungiki members.
Meanwhile, police early on Thursday moved in to clear the roads and arrested 125 suspects, including 52 in Nairobi, 35 in Molo, 18 in Kajiado and 5 in Naivasha.
Police said known Mungiki members had circulated notes to business people and matatu (public minivan) owners threatening to kill those who did not shut down their business. The sect has in the past beheaded matatu crews to extort money.
Serious threat
Kenya National Youth Alliance, the political arm of the Mungiki, said it did not call the protests. Its spokesman, Mr Gitau Njuguna Gitau, said: “If our members participated, it was on individual capacity. The two people killed at Thika are thugs and not our members.”
The Mungiki has grown from a quasi-religious organisation advocating a return to traditional Kikuyu values to a large, complex criminal organisation with multiple leaders and rival factions.
On Thursday, Police Commissioner Maj Gen Hussein Ali described “Mungiki is the single most serious threat to internal security today”, adding that the sect was “very vicious” with a blood-soaked history of “beheadings, extortion and carjackings”.
He said Mungiki had “drawn encouragement from the report” of a UN Rapporteur on Human Rights and “pro-Mungiki civil society groups”.
Criminal gang
Prof Philip Alston, the UN official, in his preliminary report, accused police of executing suspects without trial and recommended Gen Ali’s sacking and the resignation of Attorney-General Amos Wako.
Following the criticism and public pressure, the police disbanded a the Kwekwe Squad, a specialist unit set up to stamp out the sect, which was accused of brutality and illegal executions. The police also their softened approach in dealing with the protests on Thursday, with many of the officers confronting the mobs unarmed and focusing on clearing the roads.
Following the shooting last evening, police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said the killing was the work of criminals, adding: “Judging by the timing and the place of the incident, it was designed to cause student unrest.”
Mr Kingára had become the most vocal defender of the rights of the Mungiki and it is not unknown for rivalries within the sect to end in gangland executions.
The Alston report accused the police of setting up death squads to unlawfully kill suspects. Commenting on the report on Thursday, Maj Gen Ali dismissed it as having “a credibility problem”, “fiction” and “most probably an act of plagiarism” because the rapporteur had not allowed himself sufficient time to investigate complaints.
Source-The Nation
Atlanta Kenyans community action requested!!
01/29/2009.
From:
The Presiding Committee, the Kenyan Community in Atlanta (T.K.I.A) & Friends of the Late Peter Kamau Mwangi.
2021 Greenhouse patio drive,
Kennesaw, Ga. 30144
To:
His Excellency Ambassador Peter N.R.O.Ogego
Embassy of Kenya Washington DC,
2249 R. Street, N.W
Washington, DC, 20008
Your Excellency Sir,
RE: PETITION TO ACT ON THE CURRENT COURT DECISION AS PERTAINS TO THE DEATH OF THE LATE PETER KAMAU MWANGI
This Petition comes in lieu of the recent court decision where Bail was granted and set at $150,000 for the perpetrator giving him a chance be set free awaiting trial.
Your Excellency, This petition is not a demand but rather an earnest request for your honorable office to take charge and ensure fair representation and justice for the deceased.
This petition is based on the following observations:
The committee and members of the community question how the Judge got to grant bail even after the investigating detective clearly explained that he was not done with the investigation and still has a few more witnesses to question.
The amount of bail set is also questionable especially when it regard two felony counts of murder, The Judge did not explain how he came up to that conclusion leaving a lot of questions to doubt.
The District Attorney clearly expressed his doubts as to the possibility of the perpetrator being a flight risk since he has Family ties in Both the United states of America and Jamaica.
Your attention and address of this matter will be greatly appreciated and thanking you in advance we remain.
Yours sincerely,
The Presiding Committee,
The Kenyan Community in Atlanta (T.K.I.A)
Friends of Kamau.
The Kenyan Community of Atlanta needs you this Sunday
We regretfully announce the death of Peter Kamau Mwangi AKA (Kamau wa Ndederu).
This sad and untimely event occurred early last Thursday morning in Kennesaw Ga.
Kamau, as most of you already know, was stabbed to death.
Our community is kindly encouraging all to participate at a fundraiser scheduled this Sunday the 11th at KACC. 771 Elberta Drive Marietta , GA 30066 starting 4:30PM to transport Kamau back home to his final resting place.
Well wishers are meeting at his residence daily from 7PM .
Address: 2021 Green House Patio, Kennesaw GA , 30144
For details contact Maina-404-319-4328 / Mwas-678-698-0314
Man charged in stabbing death of Kenyan at party
By ALEXIS STEVENS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thursday, January 01, 2009
Lillian Ngugi of Acworth had a party at her house New Year’s Eve to celebrate the holiday and her son’s eighth birthday.
Just hours into the new year, her front yard became a crime scene. One of her neighbors, Kevin Martin, 35, has been charged with murder in the stabbing death of another man who attended the party.
Police have not released the identity of the victim, who is a native of Kenya. Ngugi said he is a family friend who lives in Kennesaw. She knows him only by his middle name.
“There was no cause for it,” Ngugi said Friday. Ngugi’s Elderberry Drive home is in McPherson Estates, off New McEver Road.
Martin, who lives across the street from Ngugi, wasn’t invited to the party, but came over with friends some time around 3 a.m. He argued with the victim, who asked him to close the front door to keep cold air out. “That was it,” Ngugi said.
A little more than an hour later, as guests were leaving, the verbal sparring between the two continued outside. Martin reportedly got a knife from his car and stabbed the victim, who initially didn’t realize he had been stabbed, Ngugi said.
“He opened his jacket and he was full of blood,” she said.
Martin went home, but was later taken into custody by Acworth police.
The victim died at WellStar Kennestone Hospital following surgery.
Ngugi and her husband, John Ragui, are Kenyan natives who have lived in the U.S. for four years. Ngugi said she is still shocked that a crime could take place in her quiet neighborhood.
“I’m so scared for my children,” she said. “I don’t want them to go outside now.”
Source-Ajc
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Death in the Kenyan Community
The Atlanta Kenyan Community has lost Peter Kamau Mwangi (Kamau wa Ndederu). Kamau, a resident of Kennesaw Georgia was allegedly Stabbed to death per police reports (See the AJC report below).
There are daily meetings going o at his residence at 2021 Gren House Patio, Kennesaw GA, 30144 from 7PM
Contacts: Maina-404-319-4328 / Mwas-678-698-0314
Other details will follow as they become available. Please pass the word around.
A Kenyan dead in hands of Police
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