NAIROBI, April 18 (Reuters) - Kenyan security forces used tear gas and batons on Wednesday to disperse members of a banned religious sect who had gathered outside parliament in the capital to protest police brutality.
Followers of Mungiki, a shadowy sect preaching a return to traditional African values, placed a coffin, which they said contained the body of a fellow member killed by police earlier this month, outside the presidential gate of parliament.
Police then moved in, firing rounds of tear gas and launching baton charges at the protesters as bemused tourists looked on from the balconies of a nearby luxury hotel.
Police spokesman Dola Ndidis said it was too early to establish the number of injuries but confirmed that six sect members had been arrested.
Mungiki accuses the police of discriminating against it, saying that security forces have killed at least 20 of its members so far this year.
Little is known of the sect, which is growing in popularity, especially among impoverished Kenyans, prompting alarm within the government.
Mungiki is believed to have emerged in the 1980s. Its male followers, many of whom wear dreadlocks, see themselves as sons of the Mau Mau movement which fought a violent rebellion against British colonists in the 1950s.
While initially following the animist traditions of the Kikuyu tribe, the leadership of the sect converted to Islam last year and called for the implementation of sharia, the Muslim code of religious law.
07:35 04-18-01
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