You Missed This
Somebody accused the house of Mumbi of being too silent on the Mungiki menace. Maybe it’s true but that’s not necessarily out of sympathy for the sect. I’d say it’s more out of embarrassment. As much as I’m not making a statement for the Kikuyu community, I believe I speak for the majority when I say that nobody wants to have a brother who beheads and skins people and then comes home for dinner. And nobody, regardless of tribe, wants to be beheaded or skinned. Majority of Kikuyu families are Christians and do not believe in or follow the Mungiki doctrines.
Blanket condemnation of the whole tribe as pro-mungiki and therefore deserving of the violence visited upon them by their sons is plain unfair. There are thousands of disappointed parents, brothers and sisters all over Central Kenya and beyond. Given a choice every parent would want their children to grow and make a meaningful life for themselves. Instead they have become the community’s worst curse. The whole meaningful life thing is increasingly becoming a mirage in this country due to poor levels of education, land grabbing, corruption and high levels of poverty among other things.
It’s not fun being a Kikuyu right now. Central Province is gripped by fear. In some areas it is safer not to even speak about Mungiki because you never know who is a sympathizer. Other than the obvious threats that have been spread through leaflets there are also the rumours doing the rounds that Mungiki will from now on start indiscriminately seizing young girls and circumcising them. There are massive losses especially for milk farmers and matatu operators. In my home village, the old faithful lorry that collects milk at 4.00 every morning has not shown up for some days now. Who will go out at that hour?
The thing is the average Kikuyu is as much a victim as anyone else. Many Kikuyus who were happy that Mungiki revenged for the killings in Eldoret are singing a different song now. Emotions were high then and they have since taken time to reflect on the heinousness of the crimes that their sons committed.
Finally it was an insult for Kiraithe (he of the Rambo Movie fame) to come on TV and tell Kenyans that they have allowed themselves to play into the hands of the Mungiki by keeping their shops closed and their matatus off the road. What in the name of the good Lord did the police spokesman expect the shop owners to do? Open the shops anyway? Bring the matatus into town and risk having them razed? It is bad enough for the police to be seemingly doing nothing about the menace but to then try to shift the blame to mwananchi? The same policemen who were running away from the Mungiki in Thika the other day?