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Sect body count climbs
29/06/2007 21:07 - (SA)
Nairobi - Two people were killed in Kenya, said police on Friday, as crimes committed by a murderous sect and a fierce government repression continued to yield its daily crop of bodies.
Members of the Mungiki criminal gang trailed a taxi driver in central Kenya before shooting him dead in front of his family in Kagumo, about 90km north of the capital, said police commander Abraham Mao.
"We have already arrested two suspects for interrogation and I am sure we are going to get them," he said, adding that the incident took place overnight.
In Nairobi's crime-prone Eastleigh district, a member of the gang was shot dead during a gunbattle with police early on Friday, commander Paul Ruto said.
He said: "We recovered a pistol from the slain thug whom we suspect is a member of the outlawed Mungiki sect who was extorting money from motorists.
"We also arrested more than 20 suspects who are being interrogated over a series of robberies committed in the area in the recent past."
'Exploiting the jobless'
Police launched a crackdown in early June after a number of headless bodies were recovered in Nairobi slums and other Mungiki bastions in central Kenya.
The group, banned in 2002, has been blamed for at least 40 murders since March. Police say they have killed at least 49 Mungiki members in the same period.
The latest brand of Mungiki violence has touched off an acrimonious debate with critics accusing some politicians of exploiting the country's jobless youth to spark violence ahead of polls scheduled for the end of the year.
Once a religious group of dreadlocked youths who rejected the trappings of Western civilisation, the Mungiki sect has morphed into a politically-linked criminal gang notorious for extortion and grisly murders.
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