Obviously, every Kenyan has his or her perception of a group of Kenyans calling themselves “Mungiki” which has been associated with a series of illegal activities across the country especially in Nairobi and its environs.
There are those who believe that Mungiki is a gang of marauding thugs and murderers who sniff life out of their victims through beheadings. Others understand them as a terror gang which engage in crude and forced circumcisions because they believe that all Kenyans should be circumcised.
On the contrary, other Kenyans think that Mungiki is a politico-cultural sect that simply lost direction and started breaking the law. The Kenyan government has its version of what Mungiki is – thieves, robbers, extortionists, killers, security threat, hooligans and what have you.
What is disturbing ODM-Scandinavia as a Kenyan political Party is that the Kenyan government has decided to use summery executions as a way of dealing with members of Mungiki. As we write, 14 members of Mungiki have lost their lives in Kenya in the last few days after being shot by armed police trying to control rioting Mungiki members.
Before the killings, Virginia Njenga, the wife of Maina Njenga (the alleged Mungiki leader currently in police custody) together with his driver were killed last week and their bodies dumped in a forest. Because of the manner of the executions and the method in which their bodies were dumped, fingers were pointed at the government because of the serial nature of the killings and dumping of bodies which have been associated with Kenya police in the past.
In the run up to General elections last year, the bodies of hundreds of Kenyans who had allegedly been executed by police were dumped at mortuaries and forests across the country and the Kenya Human Rights Commission worked hard to document these killings. The figures ranged between 500 to 8000. So far, no one has been arrested and charged with these executions neither has any investigation been launched by the government to establish who, how, where and why these Kenyans were executed.
Regardless of the political or gangster character of Mungiki and other perceived trouble makers in Kenya and regardless of crimes Mungiki may have committed against the Kenyan people, it is unacceptable that Mungiki members, their leaders and their relatives are falling victim to what is increasingly being viewed as state orchestrated executions and subsequent dumping of victim’s bodies in forests to be discovered accidentally by passers byes.
GOVERNMENT SHOULD TAKE RESPONSIBILITY
ODM-Scandinavia believes that the way to go is to arrest suspects and charge them in a court of law so that if they are found guilty, they can pay for their crimes, not executing them and dumping their bodies at designated forests and morturies.
ODM-Scandinavia joins other voices which are calling for exhaustive investigations to establish who executed Virginia and his driver along with others who have also fallen victim to summery executions in the past.
Kenya has a well established investigative machinery which is also one of the best funded. The country has laws that must be followed in cases where a Kenyan is suspected of having committed a crime. In this era of “Grand coalition government”, it should be unthinkable that a Kenyan national could be executed by police and his/her body dumped somewhere without the law being left to take its cause.
ODM-Scandinavia does not want to speculate on what may have caused the deaths of Virginia and her driver. However, these killings should not just be left to be part of the growing statistics of Kenyans suspected to have been executed by police. Justice should not just be done but should be seen to have been done.
The new Coalition government should not drag Kenya back to the days of the Moi dictatorship when Kenyans used to be executed by police at will without the killers being brought to face justice. If this trend is allowed to continue, Kenya will become a dangerous place to live in and opponents of the government together with their relatives will begin to live in perpetual fear.
ODM-Scandinavia does not support the illegal activities of the different forms of Mungiki and this should be very clear. The Party’s standpoint is that if members of the sect are believed to have committed crimes, let them be arrested and tried, not killed and their bodies dumped as has happened several times in the past.
From the point of view of Human Rights, it is a massive violation for state agents to take a life of a citizen using whatever pretences then proceed to dispose of the body of the victim in whichever way. The new Kibaki-Raila coalition government must address the issue we have touched on as a matter of urgent concern.
The Office of the President, the Ministry of Internal security, The Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs or any other government agency whose responsibility is to provide security to Kenyan citizens and to protect the sanctity of life in Kenya must take up this and other cases which have become an eye soar in Kenya. ODM-Scandinavia believes that it is criminal for anybody to remain silent in the face of overt executions by people who should be providing security to Kenyans.
Kenyans should not accept the routine executions of fellow citizens by police and the subsequent dumping of bodies at various locations. It is in this spirit that ODM-Scandinavia is standing up to be counted in the list of those saying that the executions must stop, the cases must be investigated and police officers found guilty must be brought to face the full wrath of the law.
Mr. Martin Ngatia
ODM- Scandinavia Vice chairperson
Stockholm, April 15th 2008
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