Mungiki Eye More Routes

The Mungiki sect yesterday announced plans to take control of matatu routes countrywide.

Its co-ordinator, Mr Ibrahim Ndura Waruinge, said the move aims at taming bribe-taking traffic police officers.

He said members of the sect will from today take control of the Murang'a-Thika-Nairobi route followed by route number 2 and 102 in Nairobi.

Speaking on the Sunday edition of KTN's Breakfast Show, Waruinge further announced plans by the sect to field candidates for elective positions, including the presidency, come next year's General Election.

He denied claims that the movement was imposing itself on matatu routes so as to raise funds for the elections.

Waruinge claimed the Mungiki sect has raised a total of Sh800 million through members' monthly contributions. The sect, he said, has a membership of 4.4 million, each of who contributes Sh10 shillings a month.

Waruinge said the movement will never seek registration from the Government as its constitution was written by God.

Mungiki sect has over the past three months fought bloody battles with rival Kamjesh group over control of matatu termini in Nairobi.

Waruinge accused the chairman of the Matatu Welfare Association (MWA), Mr Dickson Mbugua, of milking matatu owners dry while doing nothing to restore order in the industry.

He claimed the Mungiki sect is currently in control of 500 hundred termini in the country.

Waruinge blamed the police, power-brokers and cartels of breeding terror in the matatu industry.

Mungiki, he said, charges matatu owners a small fee of Sh250 compared to Sh600 demanded by the Kamjesh group.

Dandora Matatu route chairman, Mr Ezekiel Angwenyi, who also appeared in the show, praised Mungiki for restoring order in Nairobi's route number 36.

In the meantime, Waruinge announced plans to stop traffic police officers from demanding bribes from matatu operators.

Meanwhile, about 15,000 people were yesterday "baptised" into the Mungiki sect.

The ceremony took place at the Manguo dam in Mwiki area of Nairobi.

An estimated 100 Mungiki high priests presided over the 3 am ceremony.

The initiates were immersed into the cold dam water and made to pass through smoke.