Kenya in Crisis Day 45: Mungiki Vs. Kalenjin Warriors

The Kalenjin Warriors are a militant organization spun off a sect from the Kalenjin tribe, the fourth largest tribe in Kenya. The Kalenjin was one of the tribes that formed the opposition government of Raila Odingo (himself a Luo). Because the Kikuyu, the tribe of incumbent Mwai Kibaki, is blamed for the election, the Kalenjin Warriors have set their sights on any members of the Kikuyu tribe since the election December 27th. They have perpetrated a great deal of violence against members of the other tribes.

Suspected Kalenjin warriors on Sunday raided Burnt Forest, intending to kill displaced people camped in the town, but security personnel repulsed them, a Catholic priest told CISA.

The warriors returned early on Monday and police killed seven of them, including two schoolboys. The priest expressed fears that the warriors, armed with bows, arrows, spears, machetes and petrol, were planning another attempt on the camp.

The Mungiki are another militant group that is spawned from members of the Kikuyu tribe, the tribe the current leader Mwai Kibaki belongs to. They have a rather primitive view of society themselves.

The religion, which apparently originated in the late 1980s, is secretive and bears some similarity to mystery religions. Specifics of their origin and doctrines are unclear. What is clear is that they favour a return to indigenous African traditions and reject Westernisation and all trappings of colonialism. This includes rejection of Christianity, and the practice by the Mungiki of forced female circumcision. The ideology of the group is characterised by revolutionary rhetoric and Kikuyu traditions with a disdain for Kenyan modernization seen as amoral corruption.[3]

The Mungiki practice similary forms of brutality.

The men were screaming and saying, 'Please don't kill me, don't cut me,"' the 35-year-old vendor told The Associated Press, asking to be identified only by one initial, K., because she feared reprisals by the gang.

In the violence that has followed Kenya's disputed presidential election, a notorious gang has been mutilating the genitals of both men and women in the name of circumcision — inflicting a brutal punishment on members of a rival tribe that does not traditionally circumcise.

Both of these militants have taken to the Kenyan streets and used the vacuum created by the aftermath of the Kenyan election for their own agendas. Much of their own violence is directed at members of the other's tribe. The situation is complicated by the fact that these gangs are many times the only protection that the commoner from their tribe has. In the slums and other areas where the chaos is greatest they are the only means of protection from their rival gangs including each other.

In this respect the crisis begins to look quite similar to the darkest hours in Iraq. That was when the Sadr Brigade was acting as a protector of the Shia and AQI and its spin off protected the Sunnis. With the militias not only the perpetrators of the violence but sometimes the only protectors, the situation is one now in need of a military solution first and then a political one.

This is what is happening on the ground throughout much of Kenya. Whether it is these two groups battling for turf or others. This is the backdrop of violence as as Kofi Annan attempts to broker a deal to grant power sharing between the two political leaders. (Odingo and Kibaki)

It is unclear to me how the one relates to the other and more importantly how the power sharing agreement will get militant groups like these two to put down their arms.