Crackdown on Religious Sect

Kenyan police arrested over 100 followers of the Mungiki religious sect, an outlawed religious group reorganised as a political party. Among the arrested was the sect leader Ibrahim Ndura Wariunge, who will be charged with various offences after issuing a statement declaring the alleged presence of former soldiers and police in the sect. Already last Tuesday the police searched Wariunge’s home, situated just outside of Nairobi, in search of weapons and propaganda material related to the sect. Last month a violent clash broke out in the centre of Nairobi between client seekers of the ‘matatus’ (local minibuses, which represent the main means of public transport in Sub-Saharan Africa) and Mungiki followers, resulting in 6 dead and numerous injured. The violence broke out in a dispute over control of certain central areas of the capital. According to international press sources, the sect was formed in the 80’s. The leaders of the sect claim some 4-millon followers, while MISNA sources say that the group counts on a few thousand members. Kenyan authorities say it is a criminal group. (BO)