But will sect adherents follow him to new faith?
It is said that the Church is home to all. In the parlance of the emergent evangelical missions to which Pastor James Maina Ng’ang’a’s Neno Evangelism Centre belong, Christ is the answer to the worldly problems. But save for his running battles with the state as the self-confessed leader of the Mungiki sect, Ndura Waruinge may probably not have been living entirely in a spiritual vacuum as to make his defection to Maina Ng’ang’a’s church the single most inevitable route to spiritual solace.
For, if what is in the public domain is anything to go by, he may himself have been a spiritual leader. Although in later days it transformed drastically into a politically inclined militia group, the Mungiki supposedly advocated for the rights of the poor and the unemployed.
Mungiki was in the initial stages best known as a religious sect that cherished African traditional practices. But again this is precisely the reason Mungiki and its leader, Ndura Waruinge, are appearing to operate paradoxically.
Historically, religious groups rarely coalesce. Instead, they always tend to drift apart. Perhaps because of the emotional nature of religious dogma, there has not been any evidence of any religious groups that once drifted apart, only to embrace later, or even accept to be swallowed by another. That is why it should have been surprising and paradoxical when, in September 2000, Mungiki apparently embraced Islam without necessarily denouncing their publicly-stated religious beliefs.
In the court of public opinion, Mungiki had actually been swallowed by Islam. Waruinge became known as Ibrahim as they joined fellow Muslims at Sakina Mosque in Mombasa that month.
Now, Waruinge’s salvation in Pastor Ng’ang’a’s church presents another contradiction. First, the church has been at the forefront in calling for the state to proscribe Mungiki and arrest its leaders in what some analysts saw as the usual fear towards young churches by the mainstream Christian churches.
Besides, for the umpteenth time Waruinge and his team made it known that Mungiki was actually founded in rebellion to Christianity and Islam religions that, in their opinion, subjugated African culture.
That he is now joining the overly pious evangelical missions without even making an attempt at denouncing what Mungiki stands for is not just a score for Christianity, but a reinforcement of the enigmatic image of the man and his sect. In the history of Christianity and African traditional religion, the two have always been at logger-heads but it would appear that the former has always won. But with Waruinge, it may prove a slippery catch — Mungiki embraced Islam but professed very little of it; it always made periodic truces with the state that never lasted. It is just a matter of conjecture therefore as to how long Waruinge’s new-found spiritual home will hold him in its embrace.
But, again, Waruinge is not new to contradiction, spiritual or otherwise. He persistently fought the state, for example, but he is also the same man who has numerously said that Cabinet ministers, civil servants and police officers subscribe to the doctrine of his sect.
For years, the former Kanu regime made every attempt to draw a connection between Mungiki and the opposition, yet Mungiki openly campaigned for Kanu, not the opposition, in the last general election. This notwithstanding, when Mungiki and Waruinge appeared invincible early in the year, it was postulated that in fact Waruinge was being protected by the current regime. It would then appear that Mungiki and Waruinge can neither be pinned down to the opposition nor the ruling party; they are also neither in Islam nor Neno Evangelism Centre! As an individual, Waruinge has said he has nothing to hide; that he operates above board and that is why the government has not been able to sustain a criminal case against him. But tracing this man who claims to operate above board can prove to be an elusive undertaking.
He has over 10 cellphone lines to his name, yet he could not be traced on either. An aide told the East African Standard that in fact he recently lost all of them. Really? It is indeed a new beginning for Waruinge!