NAIROBI, Kenya, May 15 – President Mwai Kibaki on Friday ordered the police to crackdown on all illegal criminal gangs, and singled out Mungiki as the most notorious.
He ordered security agencies to be firm in fighting the gang which has lately endangered the country’s security particularly in Central, Nairobi, and Rift Valley Provinces.
“The Government will move swiftly to deal with those threatening security of the citizens,” he said at the pass out parade of some 1,585 recruits at the Kenya Police Training College in Kiganjo.
Though President Kibaki did not make mention of Mungiki by name, he referred to their activities and singled out the recent killings of 29 people who were hacked in Karatina when the sect members clashed with vigilantes.
The Head of State said the country is facing major security challenges which need a permanent solution.
“These challenges include organised militias, the threat of terrorism, cyber crime, trafficking in narcotics as well as armed robberies. To address these challenges, my Government has increased the number of officers recruited in the police force annually and modernised their equipment” he noted.
“President Kibaki reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to crash outlawed armed militia groups in the country whose recent activities have resulted to loss of lives and property worth millions of shillings,” a statement from his Press Service said.
The Head of State said the Government was taking all the legal measures to eliminate the militia activities and redirect the youth to positive and productive social and economic ventures.
Noting that security was not a preserve of the disciplined force alone, the Head of State said that the launch of community policing was informed by the knowledge that the security of the community was a business of everybody.
“It is for this reason that the Government continues to uphold community policing as a significant national strategy against crime. Indeed this strategy resonates with the vision 2030 which envisages security of all persons and property throughout the republic,” he said.
Last week, President Kibaki chaired a cabinet meeting at State House Nairobi where the issue of Mungiki and insecurity in the country was extensively discussed.
During the meeting at State House, Internal Security Minister Professor George Saitoti was ordered to launch a nation-wide crackdown targeting all militia groups in the country but little has been heard on the progress.
Despite Prof Saitoti’s announcement two weeks ago that leaders who fund or support Mungiki will be named, shamed and prosecuted, nothing has been heard on its development.
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