Cops tear-gas Kenyan sect

Nairobi - Riot police on Wednesday tear-gassed some 300 members of Kenya's Mungiki religious sect who were staging a demonstration in the capital against the police killing last week of one of their members. The victim was mistaken by police for a robber and shot dead. The sect members, carrying a coffin with the body of the slain man, marched through the city to parliament, where the House was in session. There they were confronted by police, who fired teargas, forcing them to flee and causing them to abandon the coffin in front of parliament. Police later took the body back to the city mortuary. The Mungiki sect, whose members normally wear dread-locked hair and who advocate a return to African traditional values, mainly support the Kenyan opposition and have often clashed with police. Kenyan security forces last weekend confronted heavily armed robbers in bloody clashes in the capital, which left at least 14 people dead, including four policemen. The slain Mungiki member was mistaken for one of the robbers during the shootouts. - Sapa-AFP