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Archive for October 26th, 2009

Is this the end of the Mungiki?

Posted by jambonewspot on October 26, 2009

Maina Njenga waves at his supporters who turned up for the lunch hour meeting on October 23, 2009 at Jesus Is Alive Ministry. Kenyas Attorney General terminated the case against Mr Njenga and 20 other suspects on Friday through nolle prosequi. Photo/Fredrick Onyango

Maina Njenga waves at his supporters who turned up for the lunch hour meeting on October 23, 2009 at Jesus Is Alive Ministry. Kenya's Attorney General terminated the case against Mr Njenga and 20 other suspects on Friday through nolle prosequi. Photo/Fredrick Onyango

The barbarism and cruelty of the outlawed Mungiki sect could soon turn to shouts of ‘Hallelujah!’ and ‘Hosanna Messiah’ if its reformed leader Maina Njenga is serious about his conversion to Christianity.

In a charged church service attended by a crowd of excited Mungiki followers, Bishop Margaret Wanjiru preached an emotive sermon, but the star attraction was the gang’s boss.

Snuff

When Mr Njenga invited his followers to bring forward their snuff, a trickle of tobacco wrapped in black polythene bags soon turned into a flood, and a strong aroma added to the heady emotions of the strange occasion. The excited Mungiki followers cheered their leader, and it looked as though the congregation that normally worships there was in danger of seeing their church taken over.

“This church is no longer yours,” Mr Njenga said in his testimony. “Now it’s ours.” He joked to Bishop Wanjiru that she had many young ladies in her congregation while he had many young men among his followers. Sect members cheered in appreciation.

The brutal gang is responsible for murder and extortion in many parts of the country, especially Nairobi, Central and Rift Valley provinces. Mr Njenga, who was tried and acquitted of murder, said he would work to win every Mungiki soul for God.

The sect’s members have in the past converted to Islam, and one of its leaders, Mr Ndura Waruingi, says he is a born-again preacher.

Seek the Lord

Mr Maina also denied that his conversion had anything to do with politics. “I am not here (JIAM) for political reasons, but to seek the Lord,” he said to wild cheers from the congregation, many of them his followers. “All of us will convert.”

He said he had forgiven those who jailed him, saying the time he had spent in prison had changed his life for good. “I read the whole Bible because I had the time. That’s why I said I will not be bitter with those who ordered my arrest because it has saved my soul.”

Mr Njenga was released from the King’ong’o Maximum Security Prison, Nyeri last week after the government withdrew charges against him in relation to the murder of 29 people in Mathira in May. He said he would soon bury his wife, who was killed while she was on her way to visit him at the Naivasha Maximum Security Prison.

Source: Daily Nation

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Priest sparks women’s fury over gay debate

Posted by jambonewspot on October 26, 2009

A priest sparked off a rare debate during Sunday mass at St. Anthony Catholic cathedral when he raised the sensitive issue of marriage between two Kenyan gay men in London recently.

Fr Ambrose Muli invited the wrath of the women congregation when he suggested that the marriage between Mr Daniel Chege Gichia, 39 and Mr Charles Ngengi, 40 on October 17 in London, was a result of failure by women.

“Today as we celebrate this holy mass, I am a very, very disappointed man,” said Fr Muli when he begun his sermon drawn from the Book of Mark.

The packed cathedral was immediately sent into dead silence with the congregation wondering what the priest was up to, or what had disappointed him.

Fr Muli continued, “This so called marriage between the two Kenyan men in London last week, why do you think it happened? What went wrong? What is the matter?”

This drew murmurs from the congregation culminating with loud “No, no, no” from the women when the priest said, “This was because the women are no longer marriageable”.

Fr Muli said men were resorting to marrying one another probably because the women had failed to provide what they should in marriage.

“Women, from the way I see it, have become too complicated and unattractive in marriage. You don’t provide what God intended you to give in marriage. You have frustrated the men so much leading them to trying among themselves whether they will get the joy that comes with marriage”.

Women congregants could not take it lying down, they shouted back at the priest saying the problem was not with them, but with the men.

But the priests challenged them further that they had to be more Godly and “more womanly” to attract men for marriage.

“There is something very very wrong with women these days. You have failed to handle men the way you should. Men don’t see anything useful in you. The job that God gave you, you have failed to do,” he said.

However, the priest encouraged Christians to devote more to prayer so that the vice does not spread and destroy the family fabric which is the backbone of the church of Christ.

“Parents have a duty to bring up children in a righteous manner and lead them to God. Most of the evil manifested in an adult starts in childhood and parents contribute immensely to it,” he said.

Although the church cannot ex-communicate gay people “because they are also sons of God” it was the duty of parents and community to cultivate righteousness and high moral standards among children.

He said gay people are not necessarily more sinful but the practice went against God’s intentions of procreation. Christians have a divine obligation to put things right, said the priest.

Mr Gichia wed Mr Ngengi in London on October 17, during the first recognised same-sex relations under the 2005 British law.

The tourist haven of Malindi in Kenya’s coast has had many cases of homosexuality involving foreign tourists and local people and several white men have appeared in court to answer such charges.

Source: Daily NATION

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Villagers lynch freed Mungiki men

Posted by jambonewspot on October 26, 2009

NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 26 – Two men who were freed on Friday with Mungiki leader Maina Njenga over Mathira massacre have been lynched in Karatina.

A vigilante group angered by their release ambushed the two and hacked them to death early on Monday, barely three days after they were set free by a Nyeri court.

They were released on Friday alongside sect leader Maina Njenga after the Attorney General terminated charges against them over the Mathira massacre where some 29 people were killed in April.

Police have launched an investigation into the incident which is likely to spark off another round of violence should the sect followers plan to avenge the killings.

More than 29 villagers were killed on the night of April 20 when Mungiki youth ambushed a neighbourhood vigilante that had been formed to counter the illegal sect’s extortions.

The April killings followed weeks of tension, mainly in Kirinyaga and Karatina districts where 15 suspected Mungiki sect members had been stoned or burnt to death by residents tired of their extortion and harassment.

It is this operation that angered Mungiki sect members who then re-grouped and duped some of the vigilantes that Mungiki were to strike on that fateful night.

Unaware that Mungiki were on a killing mission mainly targeting them, the vigilantes came out in large numbers only to be attacked by the vicious sect members who were hiding in tea bushes.

21 people were arrested and charged with the murders, and Mr Njenga was enjoined in their case later.
They were all released on Friday when the Attorney General entered a nolle prosequi in the case, indicating that he was not willing to proceed with the charges.
On Sunday Mr Njenga beseeched his cult followers to be ambassadors of peace, and change their wayward habits.

Mr Njenga said that the sect had been associated with various criminal activities in the country and it was time to change that image.

“Not even one of our followers will remain, we will all get saved,” he said as he promised to ensure they (followers) all got Bibles, a far cry from the pangas they are known to wield.

Speaking at the Jesus is Alive Church Ministries where he accepted Christianity; Mr Njenga said his salvation was not political but a sincere search for God and added that being in prison had saved his soul.

“I am now saved and Jesus is my saviour. There are four people who died in an accident on their way to visit me in Naivasha GK prison and now that I am saved, the burial will be conducted by the church,” he said.

“The Bishop (Margaret Wanjiru) will now organise when this will be done,” Mr Njenga added.

He also said he and his followers would be baptised in the church on a later date.

“I will now be a church elder and the Bishop will tell me what activities she wants me to get involved in; even if it is ushering I am ready,” he said.

CAPITAL FM

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Opinion: Chege and Ngengi; the accidental gay rights trailblazers

Posted by jambonewspot on October 26, 2009

By The Nation (Kenya), by Charles Onyango Obbo | 10.26.2009

Nairobi (Kenya) – After the Sunday Nation broke the story of the gay wedding of Kenyans Daniel Chege and Charles Ngengi in London, hardly any other subject could get attention on call-ins into FM stations, the Kenyan blogosphere, and in Nairobi pub conversations.

Chege and Ngegi are the first Kenyan gay couple known to have publicly wedded. Chege has been in a previous gay partnership that broke up.

Most of the comments were, predictably, critical—and some downright hostile. By almost a ration of 10 to 1, Kenyans thought what Chege and Ngegi had done was disgraceful, a shame upon the country, their families, an affront to God and good old African values.

But then something that no one seems to have paid attention to happened. In a follow-up, KTN TV station went to the village of Chege’s parents, and in one scene that has proved particularly controversial, stopped a very elderly relative of Chege along the village path, flashed the photo of the gay couple, and wanted to know her views.

SMS messages and Tweets started flying even as the programme aired. By a ratio of, again, 10 to 1 most Kenyans felt that KTN had crossed the line in the way it treated Chege’s and Ngegi’s rural relatives. One remarkable collection of this anger was on Stockskenya.com, whose users abandoned their usually staid conversation on finance and business issues, and plunged into the more dramatic world of privacy and sex.

This reaction was surprising, because what KTN did would have passed off as good, aggressive reporting if it had been any other story. As far as most people are concerned, Chege and Ngengi went too far to break a taboo. But the fact that so many people also seemed turned off by a follow-up of the story that went beyond the couple to their relatives, suggested that Chege and Ngengi have broken a psychological barrier.

Going forward, discussions of gay issues will probably be less difficult. And, I suspect, the next story of another Kenyan gay couple is unlikely to attract as much attention. The novelty, or shock factor, around gay relationships in Kenya – and indeed people in the know say Kenya has East Africa’s largest gay community – has cracked considerably.

Chege and Ngengi never intended it that way. After all, they refused to speak to the BBC about their wedding, and their only other comment has been a plea to the media and the public to leave their families alone.

However, if eventually Kenya comes to hold a more tolerant public attitude toward gay people, history will show that Chege and Ngengi were the ones who opened public minds. They could be the accidental trailblazers for gay rights in Kenya and, who knows, maybe East Africa,

Source: Daily Nation

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US bans senior Kenyan official

Posted by jambonewspot on October 26, 2009

Hundreds died in weeks of violence following the election in 2007

Hundreds died in weeks of violence following the election in 2007

The US has imposed a travel ban on a senior Kenyan government official for obstructing efforts to rid the country of corruption.

Johnnie Carson, the US state department Africa chief, said he was considering bans on three other officials – but declined to release any names.

Kenya agreed to carry through reforms after 1,300 people died in post-election violence last year.

But the US believes some officials have deliberately been blocking the reforms.

Mr Carson told reporters in Nairobi: “The US government has taken the decision to revoke the visa of a senior Kenyan government official.”

Without revealing names, he described the politician as a “senior government official of influence”.

He said the individual had “obstructed the reform process, failed to end the cycle of impunity and has been an obstacle in the fight against corruption”.

Last month Mr Carson sent a letter to 15 officials warning them they faced travel bans if they failed to support the “reform agenda”.

He urged Kenya to strengthen its institutions and eradicate corruption to avoid more violence after the next election in 2012.

A power-sharing government was eventually set up after weeks of violence following the December 2007 election, but it has struggled to restore stability.

Rights groups blamed the police for many of the deaths in the riots.

International mediators have pressed the government to set up a tribunal to investigate the killings, but officials continue to miss every deadline they are set.

In July, former UN chief Kofi Annan passed the names of those accused of orchestrating the violence to the International Criminal Court.

The list, drawn up by a Kenyan judicial commission, has not been made public.

Source: BBC

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Mungiki leader trades pangas for bibles

Posted by jambonewspot on October 26, 2009

NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 25 – Maina Njenga, the leader of an illegal sect widely revered for its gruesome beheadings, has now beseeched his cult followers to be ambassadors of peace, and change their wayward habits.

Mr Njenga said on Sunday that the sect had been associated with various criminal activities in the country and it was time to change that image.

“Not even one of our followers will remain, we will all get saved,” he said as he promised to ensure they (followers) all got Bibles, a far cry from the pangas they are known to wield.

Speaking at the Jesus is Alive Church Ministries where he accepted Christianity; Njenga said his salvation was not political but a sincere search for God and added that being in prison had saved his soul.

“I am now saved and Jesus is my saviour. There are four people who died in an accident on their way to visit me in Naivasha GK prison and I said that because I am saved, the burial will be conducted by the church,” he said.

“The Bishop (Margaret Wanjiru) will now organise when this will be done,” Mr Njenga added.

He also said he and his followers would be baptised in the church on a later date.

“I will now be a church elder and the Bishop will tell me what activities she wants me to get involved in; even if it is ushering I am ready,” he said.

The Mungiki leader was freed on Friday after the Attorney General entered a Nolle Prosequi on a case where he was accused of allegedly ordering the massacre of 29 people in Karatina, Nyeri District, by members of the outlawed sect.

Mr Njenga had been re-arrested in April this year moments after he was released by the High Court, following a successful appeal against a five year jail term for alleged illegal possession of marijuana and a firearm.

He called on his followers who also got saved at the church to be wary of politicians who give them huge amounts of money during elections to cause chaos.

“I used to teach you to pray facing Mt. Kenya but now I want you to worship Christ. There are some who are saying I have joined a church that is led by a woman but in Christianity there is no male or female, we are all equal,” Mr Njenga said.

During the church service, hundreds of his followers said they had also got saved and surrendered paraphernalia before they were prayed for by Bishop Margaret Wanjiru, who is also the Housing Assistant Minister.

During the service, the Assistant Minister accused some leaders of politicising the multi-billion shilling Kazi Kwa Vijana initiative.

Bishop Wanjiru said that this had left many youth, who were supposed to benefit from the project, jobless.

“The initiative is a good one and should not go down because of political reasons,” she stressed.

Kazi Kwa Vijana is a Sh15 billion programme launched by President Mwai Kibaki in March this year and geared towards creating 300,000 jobs for young Kenyans in six months.

The Assistant Minister meanwhile called on Kenyans to keep peace and shun tribalism, which she said was killing this nation.

CAPITAL FM

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Maina Njega: Exclusive Interview

Posted by jambonewspot on October 26, 2009

The leader of the outlawed Mungiki sect, Maina Njenga is asking politicians and wealthy businessmen who have been funding and supporting the sect to stop it. Njenga now says his main agenda will be to destroy the sect which has been credited with wreaking havoc in parts of the country and sending shivers of fear down many Kenyans spines. Njenga says he will transform the youths into Christians insisting that the best method is by stopping the funding. Njenga claims that politicians, some of whom are in government have been using the sect for their political mileage only to disown them later. Chris Thairu (Citizen TV) visited Njenga at his Kitengela home and filed the following story.

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