'Mungiki cannot even kill a fly,' Maina Njenga refutes claims of violence linked to the sect

Former Mungiki leader Maina Njenga has refuted allegations that the outlawed sect orchestrated attacks and violence in the Mt. Kenya region and around the country.

Njenga, who spoke on Citizen TV’s JKLive Show on Wednesday night, dismissed claims that Mungiki was a nightmare to people in Central Kenya, instead asserting that they were only provoked by the police.

He painted a rosy picture of the sect in regards to the recent anti-government protests, arguing that any form of violence which might have been witnessed was a response to police aggravation.

“I don’t think that Mungiki was very violent, it was the police. Like in the case of Maandamano, if the police would not come to disrupt Maandamano, you would not have chaos. Even in those days, it was the police causing chaos every time then blamed it on the common mwananchi,” he stated.

“When you hear things happening in Mt. Kenya, it was not the youth who were doing those things, it was the government of that day…like the disappearance of the people, harassment, the youth (Mungiki) are very harmless people who cannot even kill a fly.”

When asked about reported incidences of extortion and murders and Mungiki gang members allegedly milking people’s cows, Njenga rubbished the claims as mere falsehoods saying no known cases were ever reported to the authorities.

“Those were propagandas, I have heard people say that people used to milk people’s cows. But it is the Chiefs and even the villagers who would be telling people…not senior people talking about those things…how many cases have been reported to the police stations?” He posed.

Njenga reassured that ‘Mungiki,’ in the Kikuyu dialect, means “many people”, adding that the group was initially formed to do good and had even been permitted by the then President Daniel Moi to reorganize the matatu industry.

He acknowledged that even though the group might have broken the law a few times, they did more good and should be absolved of atrocities committed.

"Mungiki will be a history read for many years to come…Those youths helped people to secure places in Molo, Naivasha and all those areas," Njenga noted.

"When you are fighting each other, anything can happen. You don’t blame them, you forgive them for what they did…I don’t deny they did bad things but they also did good things."

He added: “We had authority from the then president Daniel Moi that we should organize the matatu industry, provide them with the driver, the conductors …so that there could be order. We were not actually demanding money from them. There was an agreement that we should take a certain amount of money which is for our own upkeep and the other is for the owner.”