Nairobi, Kenya - The Mungiki sect was on Thursday linked to the brutal killings of two people in Nairobi as Eldoret police gunned down two suspected sect members in a botched carjack.
Police said they were investigating the deaths in Nairobi’s Industrial Area and Jogoo Road. One of the bodies had missing parts. Police suspect the killings were related to rituals similar to those blamed on Mungiki adherents in the past.
The body was found along Jogoo Road on Thursday morning and police suspect it was ferried there. Police said the middle-aged man’s head had deep cuts. They said they were pursuing a ritual angle in their investigations.
The second body was discovered in Industrial Area at about 7am. Police said the person seemed to have been strangled somewhere before being dumped on the roadside. The body had a bullet wound in the chest, though there were no bloodstains at the scene.
Embakasi police boss Julius Muthuri said they were investigating the incident. He said a team had been appointed to pursue the case and get the killers.
In the Eldoret incident, the suspects had attempted to carjack a motorist along the Eldoret-Kapsabet highway. They carjacked a vehicle carrying over Sh2.5 million belonging to a teachers’ sacco in Nandi North District as it was being transferred from an Eldoret bank to Kapsabet.
Another suspect escaped during the 1.30pm incident. The police recovered an AK-47 rifle from the slain suspects. The suspects had attempted to carjack a motorist at Mosoriot, when police intercepted and shot them dead as they tried to escape.
Uasin-Gishu acting Officer Commanding Police Division, Mr Apollo Onyonyi, said one of the shot suspects, who he identified as ‘Macho’, had been mentioned among the Mungiki members terrorising public transport operators in Eldoret town.
"This man even communicated with one of their leaders, whom we arrested on Wednesday," said Onyonyi.