Is the Government condoning the sect's exploits in Nairobi?
A puzzling scenario has been emerging lately. Is the government, which previously treated Mungiki as anathema, softening its stance towards the movement? Why is the government turning a blind eye as Mungiki runs riot by taking control of the matatu industry?
The leader of Mungiki, Ibrahim Ndura Waruinge, says in an interview this week that the movement is staying on course to its pre-ordained goals and will not be relenting.
He sounds ambiguous when asked whether he has entered the good books of the establishment, though he won't admit as much and now claims that his current woes have been manufactured in the newsrooms.
In an interview with him this week, he was particularly incensed by a commentary carried in the East African Standard recently.
But he admits, that on the contrary, this sword-crossing with the media has made his organisation flourish.
"They (media) began by saying we were oathing certain people. Then they came up with the issue of us circumcising women. Then they changed the version to say that we were striping women. They later said we wanted to overthrow the Government and now they are saying we are taking over the matatu industry," he charges.
"We are used to this and it's what has made Mungiki grow," reckons the co-ordinator of this amorphous movement.
What has baffled observers is that while Mungiki groups previously used to be scattered like dry leaves by government forces lately they have been roaming the town with new-found confidence. It was not until an outcry led by the matatu association that police this week started taking some action to remove Mungiki from some matatu termini they have already occupied.
Waruinge is non-committal on many issues to a point of being vague. One finds it puzzling what to make of him, a man who simultaneously belongs to the Mungiki sect and the Islamic religion. Lately he has emerged more like a politician or a trade unionist strutting ahead of his followers declaring that Mungiki with now lord it over the matatu industry.
By his words we could be witnessing the beginning of transformation of Mungiki from an rudimentary movement with vague aims to a political party.
Over a tepid cup of tea (at lunch hour) in a nondescript cafe, he says the movement has Sh800 million cooling in a bank somewhere. This money, Waruinge says, is for sponsoring Mungiki parliamentary aspirants for the 2002 general election campaigns.
He is talking big. He claims Mungiki bags Sh45 million monthly from membership subscription (4.5 million members paying ten shillings each), Waruinge boasts that Mungiki owns hundreds of matatus, taxi cabs, handcarts and a few buses.
But sitting opposite him and his two clean-shaven bodyguards, one is hard put to figure out how this organisation can have that kind of money, membership or even the capacity and capability to collect such moneys.
Waruinge himself does not look prosperous and actually refers to Mungiki followers as the "dot.poverty" generation. In the same breath, however, he dismisses what his boys are raising by manning matatu termini, as little money.
And when faced with the question of why the government is letting his organisation get away with 'murder' he brags that many in the government, whose organs he claims to have extensively penetrated, "are in Mungiki and so we have everything we need."
But nobody can afford to take Waruinge and Mungiki lightly. The movement might not have 4.5 million members, but it has membership. This membership mainly consists of young unemployed Kenyans, with nothing or little to lose. And with or without the assistance of the establishment, they have potential to wreak untold havoc, especially in Nairobi.
Waruinge loathes Dickson Mbugua of the Matatu Welfare Association (MWA), with a passion. In Mbugua, he sees a man with no stake in the matatu industry, and only bent on milking it dry for personal gain.
To Waruinge, the MWA chairman is standing between Mungiki youth and gainful employment. Mbugua, according to the Mungiki chief, is importing Maasai morans from Tanzania to man matatu termini in the city, to the detriment of local youth.
This is what Waruinge has vowed to fight to "the last man". And it is not only Mbugua and his Maasai that he will fight to reach this goal - he has extended his keep-off warning to tough policeman Geoffrey Muathe, the Nairobi police boss. Muathe had on Thursday warned Mungiki or any other group to keep away from matatu termini, but the following day, Waruinge called his bluff - in public.
Since Friday, the police were said to be cracking down on Mungiki and Kamjesh for defying their orders. Scores are said to have been arrested in Dandora, Kayole, Kariobangi North and Kasarani Mwiki. But Waruinge is still a free man and has vowed to battle the police on this. We wait to see whether this crackdown is a mere PR exercise to appease the baffled citizens of Nairobi or serious mopping up of what police deem to be criminal elements.
The sect can also be intimidating and prior to interviewing the Mungiki chief, a col-league had warned me that Waruinge's escorts could be nasty and would not take kindly to a "negative interview" of their boss. But while we candidly conversed, his two young minders kept their peace and did not once interfere with our talk.
Waruinge, who called a Press conference to warn the two lawful organizations (police and MWA), is however quick to dismiss the notion gaining credence in certain circles that he has support from some of the powers that be. The rumour is that he is being used to scuttle the opposition, especially the Kikuyu dominated parties. This, according to hearsay, is why he is being allowed so much leeway.
Hitherto, only rowdy Kanu operatives have been allowed as it were, to cause a breach of the peace and get away with it.
The question coming now is: From where do Waruinge and Mungiki, get such macho confidence?
This is the same movement that has sealed the Dandora City Council dumpsite threatening to burn any refuse truck that approaches it. No authority questions this.
In fact Waruinge had the guts to, according to him, take round the Mayor of Nairobi and show him a new dumping site in Industrial area. Who is he! "They (the City Council) believed they could only dump garbage in the midst of people. Now all children born in this area of Dandora have deformities."
Waruinge reckons the Mayor was "happy" when he (Waruinge) identified the new site and on Thursday he claimed, bulldozers were on site creating truck inroads to the quarries Waruinge identified as the new dumpsite.
But while claiming the move to seal the dumpsite was prompted by environmental concern, the Mungiki chief also discloses that his movement intends to turn the site into a " mini Gikomba", to be used by hawkers who are its members.
And to prove his leadership qualities, he will remove the hawkers from the central business district to Dandora.
"We don't believe in mere words, unlike the current crop of MPs. We will show them by action."
When accused of co-operating with Kanu to wreck the opposition, the Mungiki co-ordinator suddenly goes ballistic, claiming that the Opposition died when Matiba "hitherto the only true oppositionist in this country", approved of his son's appointment to the Kenya Tourist Board.
He reckons everyone in Parliament is in Kanu, whatever party they profess to belong to and so he has nothing to scuttle. And either through sheer gut feelings or in jest the man talks of bringing 150 Mungiki members into Parliament following the 2002 elections. "If elections were called today, we would comfortably get 70 seats," he declares.
Well, Waruinge must be a formidable force on the Kenyan political scene or a big joker! Take your pick.
Most of those who would vote Mungiki are the young mainly unregistered youths, but on the issue of youthful voter registration, Waruinge tends, albeit without conviction, to rely on the Kanu government's goodwill. Out of his 4.5 million members, however, he reckons it is only less than half who are not registered voters.
"We have the potential of 2.4m registered voters," he says.
He dismisses the fight between Kamjesh and Mungiki, saying the two are basically one.
Waruinge reckons Mbugua of MWA should also answer a few questions about himself and the activities of his organisation. He is not the first person to claim that the matatu boss owns no matatu.
Waruinge, the mystery-man, says he spends 20 hours on the move, "talking to my people" and the only time he has to himself is 30 minutes over lunch and after one in the morning when he joins his family (he does not say where). Are these the making of a future Kenyan leader?