At least 12 people were killed yesterday in Kenya when police clashed with members of a banned sect that went on a rampage and burned many vehicles after the murder of the wife of their jailed leader.
Police said five people were killed in Nairobi, four in central Kenya and three in the Rift Valley region, where members of the outlawed Mungiki sect were blocking roads and stoning motorists.
Nine of those killed were Mungiki members shot dead by police, while the three others were civilians caught up in the violence, police officials said.
The demonstrations were not linked to political violence that rocked the east African country earlier this year and claimed at least 1,500 lives while displacing hundreds of thousands of people, police said.
“A crackdown has been mounted all over the country against this criminal gang and legal action will be taken against all those who destroyed other people’s property,” national police spokesman Eric Kiraithe told a press conference.
“We have responded with full force and our officers are in all the affected parts of the country. They are clearing the roads and dispersing members of these gangs,” he said.
“We want to send a clear message to them that no one will be spared in this operation. They will regret what they are doing ... We assure the public that peace will be restored and all these hooligans brought to book,” he said.
Police said more than 30 vehicles were burned in the capital as police battled the youth, mainly in Nairobi slums.
The key road to the west was blocked at the Rift Valley towns of Nakuru, Naivasha and Eldoret. More violence was reported in the central Kenyan towns of Thika and Muranga, police said.
The Mungiki sect was once a religious group of dreadlocked youths who embraced traditional rituals, but the authorities say it has evolved into a criminal gang.
The Mungiki members were protesting the killing of Virginia Nyakio, the wife of imprisoned sect leader Maina Njenga. Nyakio’s mutilated body was recovered on Friday — three days after she was seized by unknown kidnappers.
The sect blamed police for Nyakio’s killing.
“Let it be known that police were not involved at all in the killing of Virginia Nyakio and the driver. Evidence has so far indicated that the two were killed as a result of disgreements within the gang,” Kiraithe said.
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