53 more members of the Mungiiki were arrested, while key leaders remain in hiding, reports The East African Standard.
Kenya’s government continues its crackdown and remains determined to subdue the violent sect.
At one point the Mungiki actually took over parts of downtown Nairobi, until overcome by police.
The Kenyan government demonstrates its continuing resolve to crush the destructive “cult” movement known as the Mungiki.
News articles published by The Nation in Nairobi report more arrests as the government crackdown goes on with no letup in sight.
The relatives of one regional leader were arrested in a raid and bail was denied for many Mungiki already in custody.
68 alleged Mungiki will soon be in court facing criminal charges. It appears the men were preparing for yet another reign of terror and had gathered weapons.
It is clear that Kenya intends to put down the “sect,” which threatens the stability of the African nation.
The Mungiki are a prime example of the extreme violence and unrest created by religious cults in Africa that has rocked the continent through waves of violence in recent years.
The Mungiki sect or “cult” has a horrific history of murder and mayhem in Kenya. Last week alone 32 people were murdered by cult members, only the latest victims of the cult’s reign of terror, reports Sunday Nation.
However, the international media rarely devotes its resources for meaningful in-depth coverage of the brutal cult killings in Africa.
Why?
When 39 members of a relatively obscure American cult known as “Heaven’s Gate” committed suicide in 1997 it made headlines and generated seemingly endless journalistic analysis.
And in 1994 when 53 members of the then obscure Solar Temple were found dead in Switzerland, that too became the focus of rapt international press concern.
The Mungiki movement may include more than 2 million members and seems intent upon destablizing a government.
Just after 2000 hundreds of bodies were recovered in Uganda, the direct result of brutal cult slayings and suicide connected to “The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments.” But again this didn’t generate the same international news coverage that much less historically significant cults did outside of Africa .
Why?
In 1978 when 900 Americans died in an isolated cult compound in Guyana called “Jonestown” there was no shortage of journalists willing to cover that story. More than that number probably died in Uganda, but we will never know due to a lack of forensic assistance and it seems international interest.
Apparently African cult tragedies somehow don’t rate the same attention from the international media and community.
It appears that many news outlets think cult members must be white, American, European or at least from an industrialized nation such as Japan (i.e. Aum), to be worthy serious concern and meaningful in-depth reporting.
The Mungiki are an outlawed “cult” in Kenya. However, despite their status the group is still active. Three people were killed in riots staged by the Mungiki this week, reports The Nation in Nairobi.
The Mugiki sect was founded in 1980 and advocates “traditional African values” such as female circumcision, regarded by many as mutilation.
The crackdown on the sect began last year when leaders were arrested. Many Kenyans have died since as a direct result of repeated confrontations with authorities and rival sects.
Africa’s cult problems reached a climactic point in 2000 when a doomsday cult in Uganda called “The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments” became the largest recorded cult murder/suicide in history.
About 1,000 members of the splinter schismatic Catholic group led by Joseph Kibwetere perished. No accurate count of the cult’s victims will ever be known, but the government recovered hundreds of bodies buried, burned and hidden by the group.
Since the Ugandan tragedy of 2000 African governments seem to have become more “cult conscious” and now appear to monitor the activities of violent and potentially dangerous groups closely.
The crack down on the Mungiki can be seen as an extension of this new commitment, which has included increased surveillance and law enforcement.
