Mungiki Rising

It's no news that Americans have a blind spot just about the size of Africa. I'm as guilty as anyone else. But I've started to follow the political situation in Kenya, and the inextricable part the Mungiki sect are playing in it.

Over the weekend, members of the sect allegedly killed - make that allegedly beheaded - a bus driver and conductor in the Murang'a district of Nairobi. More from Reuters:

Members of Kenya's outlawed Mungiki gang beheaded two more people on Saturday, local media said, a day after the president vowed to crack down on those behind a wave of violence in the volatile run-up to elections...

On Friday, President Mwai Kibaki pledged to hunt down Mungiki members just hours after five earlier murders rocked central Kenya, including one in his own constituency. The gang was also blamed for the murders of six people found decapitated last month.

Who are the Mungiki? A gang? A religious group? An insurgency? For the answer, you have to go back to colonial Africa, when Kenya was under British rule. A predominant tribe in the region - the Kikuyu - were responsible for the Mau Mau uprising, which lasted from 1952 to 1960. While it did not overthrow British rule, it paved the way for Kenyan independence in 1963.

The origins of the Mungiki movement are shrouded in secrecy, but tied to the mythos of the Mau Mau uprising, and the Kikuyu people. There's a good sum-up on BBC News:

One theory has it that Mungiki was formed in 1988 with the aim of toppling the government of former President Daniel arap Moi. The sect was, at one time, associated with Mwakenya, an underground movement formed in 1979 to challenge the former Kanu regime.

Other reports say Mungiki was founded in 1987 by some young students in central Kenya to reclaim political power and wealth which its members claim was stolen from the Kikuyu.

Its leadership claims to have two million members around the country and to have infiltrated government offices, factories, schools and the armed forces - members who would not necessarily sport [identifying] dreadlocks but support and finance the sect behind the scenes.

The group has been blamed for racketeering and intimidation. There's basis for calling this a political opposition group. But is it a religion? Here are some of their reported beliefs (again, hats off to BBC):

They pray as they face Mount Kenya, which they believe to be the home of their God, known as Ngai.

And their name means "a united people".

Their holy communion is tobacco-sniffing, their hairstyle that of the Mau Mau dreadlocks.

They are also carrying on the Mau Mau tradition of opposition to any Western influence in Kenya and have conservative attitudes towards womens' dress, and are advocates of forced female circumcision, according to some reports. Although the sect was outlawed in 2002, the size of the group today is most often cited to be in the millions.

The reasons for the recent violence are complicated, and include a hostility to the President Kibaki's current government, which has been rife with crime and corruption. Kibaki, who faces an uphill battle towards reelection this year, has tried to make the Mungiki the target of a "cleanup" effort - but with their underground practices, and popular support, they are turning this on its head, creating a shadow uprising of untold numbers.

It is a volatile situation, where religion and underground politics are threatening the stability of the country. Keep an eye out for Mungiki stories in the coming weeks - if you can find them.