PEV snip

A man takes part in the 2007 post election violence. An OTP pre-trial brief says the Mungiki took an oath to take part in the violence so as to protect the interests of the GEMA (Photo/Boniface Mwangi).

According to the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC), the Mungiki took an oath in 2007 to protect the interests of the GEMA community but to specifically

“ensure that the Presidency remained within Kikuyu hands.”

A pre-trial brief the office released in January this year says the oath was part of the initiation procedures that its members went through while being introduced to the group’s rules and procedures. Those who broke these rules, the brief says, went through a “quasi-judicial” procedure and if found guilty would be punished, the highest form of punishment being death penalty.

The OTP also says the Mungiki had an effective communication network, a quality which made it reliable to politicians.

“The Muranga and Uhuru Park rallies in November 2007 each assembling thousands of Mungiki from across the country, are indicative of the Mungiki’s ability to mobilize large numbers on short notice,” the brief says.

Sources of Finance:
The OTP says the Mungiki had several sources of finances. Apart from being paid by politicians to campaign for them, the group is said to have relied on the matatu industry to collect its revenue. The OTP also says the group sold protection services to business people, as well as providing

“essential social services such as garbage collection, security, water, electricity, and public toilets in certain areas.”

More than 1,000 people were killed during the violence that rocked the country after the general elections. Another 650,000 were displaced from their homes.

While President Uhuru Kenyatta has since apologized for the crimes, a number of proposals are yet to be met as way of ending endemic inequalities among communities that have been seen as a source of ethnic conflict in Kenya.

Most of these proposals are found in the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) report which is yet to be implemented.