Raila, Azimio leaders now accuse gov't of using Mungiki claims to target Mt Kenya youth

Azimio La Umoja One Kenya coalition leaders led by Raila Odinga are now accusing the government of targeting and profiling youth from the Mt Kenya region.

Addressing the media at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Foundation on Monday, the Azimio leaders dismissed the government's pronouncement on the re-emergence of the outlawed criminal group Mungiki and crackdown on alcoholism as a plot to unfairly target youth from Central Kenya.

Mr. Odinga went ahead to state that the recent arrest of former Mungiki leader Maina Njenga was politically motivated.

While singling out Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, the opposition leader challenged the government to focus on creating jobs for the youth instead of labeling them as drunkards and members of outlawed criminal groups.

"There is now an attempt to artificially recreate, and reestablish the Mungiki movement and I have seen it happen with my own eyes. Maina Njenga has since been vilified and harassed, they have carried out searches in his residences, planting some kind of evidence to try to vilify him and find an excuse to arrest him and detain him," said Odinga.

"The youths have nothing else to do, they are idle and that is the reason why they resort to alcoholism. The answer to this is provide them with jobs. Mr Gachagua, don’t vilify these youths, give them something meaningful to do," he added:

NARC-Kenya Party leader Martha Leader claimed the government's claim on Mungiki resurgence, is just an attempt to justify violence on Mt. Kenya youth.

"We are seeing the profiling of Mt Kenya youth as Mungiki which amounts to an attempt by the regime to create an artificial crisis to justify violence against innocent youth from the mountain. It is our position that profiling of Mt Kenya youth will not solve the problems facing this regime. It will only derail the healing process," said Karua.

On his part, former Murang'a Governor Mwangi Wa Iria insinuated that the President Ruto-led Kenya Kwanza government took advantage of the youth to acsend to power only to turn against them months later.

Wa Iria wondered what has triggered the Mungiki debate, pointing out that there has been no incident in Central Kenya to warrant the remarks by Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua that the Mungiki sect is regrouping.

"We are here because we are concerned and worried about our community... This is a community that eight months ago was being celebrated as the central cog for Kenya Kwanza. Our youth were being glorified as the mighty hustlers and our youths were moving around in waves, and the wave resulted in the government that is said to be in place today. Our worry is how such celebrated youth can within 6 months turn into thugs," said Wa Iria.

"How can hustlers transform from being hustlers within a space of 6 months into being gangsters, into being murderers, into being Mungiki... If we don't speak for our youth then we are condemning our future. Our youth are being targeted because they are the future of Kikuyus as a community."

He added: "Where has this subject of mungiki come from because no incident has been observed? We want to tell Gachagua, whoever is bringing that debate need to kill it with immediate effect. Wherever that debate has come from, Gachagua needs to take it wherever he got it from."

Former Laikipia Governor Nderitu Mureithi claimed there was ill intention in the alleged pronouncement on the resurgence of Mungiki.

"The reason our young people are being branded Mungiki and drunkards is because there is an ill intent on them. It must be clear to all of us that young people in Mt Kenya are being targeted very specifically both economically and being profiled so that perhaps so that extrajudicial killings can happen," said Mureithi.