The Mungiki Sect of Kenya: Terror Cult, Cointelpro or Both?

When we came across the story of the Mungiki sect of Kenya, we initially thought it was solely about a vicious, discordian, satanic, criminal, cult group. However, as we dug deeper, the official story appeared quite sketchy.

In the Kikuyu language, the term “Mungiki” means “multitude,” or “united people.” Are the Mungiki merely patsies being portrayed as boogeymen for a deep-state agenda? On a larger picture it reminds us of cointelpro Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA).

Read “How Cointelpro Used Agents of Chaos to Delegitimize Activist Groups”

Kenya is a seriously corrupt country ruled by kleptocrats. The Mingiki are primarily comprised of impoverished Nairobi slum dwellers.

It is said that the sect follows old native Kenyan values. They reject Christianity and worship spirits of the land. The group is also said to have morphed into a protection and support network, or classic Mafia, that controls many of the slums.

Stemming from Kenya’s largest tribe, the Kikuyu can put tens of thousands into the streets and represent a great threat to the ruling class. There may be as many as four million slum dwellers controlled by or affiliated with them.

The official narratives about Mingiki are quite incredible. Upon initiation into the group, Mungiki members must swear an oath of secrecy. Those who desert the Mungiki, or who reveal its secrets, may be killed by the group. The head of this snake is evasive, as few Mungiki leaders are even known.

The sect is described as “amorphous.” It reportedly has a system of informants, and members often change their appearance in order to avoid detection by police.

The Mungiki are said to support the return to traditional tribal customs and beliefs. For example, the sect advocates female circumcision. The atrocity propaganda alleges that they terrorize women in general as protocol. Women will be attacked for wearing pants, bikinis or miniskirts, so the story goes.

It’s estimated that 80 percent of Mungiki members are male, and many wear dreadlocks.

The group is said to be “heavily armed” and carry such weapons as swords, machetes, knives, AK-47s, and other types of guns.

In 2007, in a scene that could have been from the movie “The Purge,” the Mungiki went through other tribal neighborhoods, from house to house, demanding to see people’s identification cards. Anyone not Mungiki would be forcefully circumcised. Anyone who resisted had their heads chopped off by machetes.

In addition to Mungiki’ “protection fees” paid to them by slum residents, they demand money for basic services, such as water and electricity, Reuters reported in June 2007. This wouldn’t be such a surprise for the world’s slum dwellers. In Rio de Janerio, for example, the vagabundagem (gang members) work with police and city officials on such schemes.

This sistema template was discussed in our write up on the great Brazilian movie “O Inimgo Dentro (The Enemy Within).” Similarly and curiously, like in the Rio favelas, the Mungiki are thought to receive direction “from afar,” meaning secret backers.

In January 2016, the governor of Nakuru, Kinuthia Mbugua, attended the funeral of a high-ranking gang leader named Joseph Ngugi Chege. Chege was murdered by unknown assailants. Mbugua said he had several business dealings with the notorious leader. Those business relationships were called into question following the admission.

The most notorious killings in the 2007 “purge” happened in the Central Province, where eight people were beheaded. As a fear tactic, “the gang” displayed the heads on poles, and their body parts were scattered near the capital, Nairobi. Dismemberment is the preferred modus operandi of this sect.

Following this 2007 terror attack, Kenyan authorities tried to eradicate the group and rounded up and killed 500 young men believed to be associated with the Mungiki. All that did was spur the cult to even greater violence.

However, another version of the November 2007 event is provided by FOTO EVIDENCE (2011). And, according to a report by a group of Kenyan lawyers, as many as 8,040 young Kenyans were executed or tortured to death during a five-year police crackdown (2002-2007) on the outlawed Mungiki sect.

The group reportedly resurfaced in 2009, when authorities alleged the Mungiki hacked 28 people to death in the Central Kenya city of Nyeri. That attack was revenge against people who stood up to the Mungiki and tried to rid their town of the violent gang.

Residents of a Nairobi slum were supposedly forced to flee their homes, because they feared the police would be unable to protect them from the Mungiki, a Kenyan police spokesman told the BBC in June 2007.

However, in an article titled “Prophecy of Mungiki Rulership In Kenya,” this question is asked: “Where did they [the Mungiki] get guns, police uniforms, and army uniforms?” Is the reality that captured or mercenary elements are working with police as cointelpro and carrying out skulduggery?

In a strange coinkydink, the International Criminal Court alleges the Mungiki were actually sponsored by the Kenyan government following the disputed 2007 election. Clashes during that time left more than 1,000 people dead. Our takeaway: Mungiki, or co-opted cointelpro elements of Mungiki? More likely the latter.

Other reports claim the Kenyan police have been accused of complicity with the Mungiki and of allowing the sect to “operate with impunity.”

In a story that can only be called dicey and for pajama people, The African Daily tells us a band of Mungiki killers was released from prison because they disavowed the Mungiki and vowed to become Christians. Really?

“Kenya: Mungiki leader freed from prison” (October 2009)

The leader of a banned Kenyan gang has been freed after charges that he murdered 28 people were dropped. Maina Njenga was freed on Friday and called on all fellow Mungiki members to renounce membership and become Christians.

Speaking in a church in the centre of Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, Njenga said: “I have now come to learn that there is something bigger than what is in that mountain … I want to be singing in the church and then I get baptised.” Those others out there who have not come up publicly should follow suit and get saved and get out of the Mungiki.”

Njenga had led Mungiki, a pseudo-religious group of dreadlocked youths who worshiped spirits in Mount Kenya and embraced rituals such as female circumcision.

What became of the released Mungiki leader, you might wonder. He entered politics, of course, and became CEO of Amani Sasa.

Here are photos of police cracking down on Kenyan community in 2007 as they hunt for Mungiki. Many were brutally killed by police.

Ross Kemp did a report on the Mungiki for his show, “Extreme World.” In his own words, the full picture wasn’t at all what he anticipated. Our writers are split on Kemp. Russ thinks he’s an intrepid journalist. Torchy points to his mockingbird-like bio. Regardless, the documentary is at the street level and is fascinating.

Must see: At minute 00:35:15, during a massive Mingiki demonstration in Nairobi, Kemp walks up to a crowd of tense Mungiki youth to get their story and is untouched. Is this the real (versus the contrived) Mungiki?

Now, according to Kenyan Report, the Mungiki are reemerging under new leader, who’s a former police inspector, along with aids of the aforementioned former Mungiki leader Maina Njenga. And the security bosses of Kenya have formed a new lethal police unit, called the Snakebite squad, to combat the sect. A similar security squad, called Kwekew, is said to have ambushed and murdered government critic and businessman Jacob Juma.