The alleged reemergence of organized criminal gangs in some parts of the country is causing nightmares to security agencies.

The gangs linked to a wide range of violent crimes, including extortions and killings are allegedly being propped by politicians ahead of the 2027 elections.

Once such claim was made recently by former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua who claims the re-emergence of one of the deadliest criminal gangs in the land, a claim dismissed by his political foes as baseless.

TV47 in a special report explores why the allegations are sending shock waves in some parts of the country where the gangs operated with impunity.

Previously in Kenya the atrocities caused by illegal gangs spread far and wide across the country from the Nyanza region where violence was undertaken by an illegal group such as Taliban.

The coastal region residents of Mombasa and its environs have had to undergo the wrath of Wakali Wao and Mombasa Republican Council (MRC) gangs, Sungu Sungu and Chinkororo gangs gave locals of Kisii sleepless nights, while Group 40 reigned terror on residents of Dandora, Nairobi County. And then there was the mother of all gangs, the infamous Mungiki, which terrorized sections of Mt. Kenya region.

Chilling Mungiki memory

In Kenya’s Mt Kenya region, the undying chilling memory of the Mungiki menace lives on. Mention the name Mungiki and those who have drunk from its cup of wrath will jump out of fear.

In the outskirts of Karatina town in Nyeri County at the Nyeri-Kirinyaga border, lies a silent village, Githaithi.

The village situated  top of the lush green highlands is majorly inhabited by tea farmers. Crisscrossing the area, you would encounter people who are warm and welcoming. However, utter the word “Mungiki,” and everyone goes berserk.

Uniquely, the majority of the people in Gathaithi are women, adding to the distinct character of this haunted village. On April 21, 2009, this village woke to the gory news of 29 men hacked to death by members of the outlawed Mungiki sect. Tragic!

Mungiki massacre

The memories of the dreaded night are still fresh in their minds.

Margaret Kanini on the fateful day lost her brother, who was hacked to death by machete-wielding Mungiki sect members who had attacked Gathaithi village in the dead of the night.

“That very night that the life of my brother was brutally ended was the same night he was supposed to run away from home and join me in Baricho town where I was leaving then,” Narrates Kanini. “he had opened up to me that his education had been affected by the tension caused by Mungiki.”

Samuel will add to the number of the 29 people killed by Mungiki on the tragic night in Gathaithi, Mathira, Nyeri county, infamously referred to as the Mathira Massacre.

Chilling stories

“Viewing his body at the morgue he was badly mutilated by a machete, all over his body were deep cuts.”

Yards away from Kanini homestead, Philip Waweru is among the few men who can be spotted in this village. Together with Robinson Njiru, they are among the lucky ones who have lived to share the chilling ordeals of that night where almost all male persons were hacked to death. Waweru and Njiru lost their fathers on that night.

Francis Kinyua attributes the killings in Gathaithi to a retaliation move by the Mungiki after a vigilante group in the Kagumo area of the neighboring county decided to put to an end the doings of the sect.

The vigilante group, locally referred to as ‘Kenda kenda’ which can be loosely translated as a group comprising 9 individuals was tasked to get rid of anyone suspected to be a member of the outlawed sect.

Then a dreaded group, Mungiki stopped at nothing and spared no one while undertaking their criminal activities. 60-year-old Peter Ngucu, a resident of Karatina village together with his family have been on the search for their mother who at the time of her disappearance was 97-year-old.

It is feared that the old woman had fallen prey to the blood-baying Mungiki sect members.

It is from these accounts that to date the name Mungiki, if mentioned, sends a shockwave of fear among many.

Gachagua fears of resurgence

Recently, a section of the political class raised fears of a resurgence of the Mungiki in the Mt. Kenya region. Standing on a pulpit on the 4th of January 2025, Gachagua in his character of a self-proclaimed man who speaks the truth boldly, sounded an alarm.

Gachagua expressed his reservations over a meeting held on December 31st 2024 at Kabiruini stadium in Nyeri where former Mungiki Leader Maina Njenga was the face of the gathering.

Gachagua further alleged Njenga’s presence in the Mt Kenya region signals a resurgence of the outlawed Mungiki sect through the help of the government.  

Njenga would later storm a prayer meeting that Gachagua was supposed to attend but sent his wife Pastor Dorcas Rigathi. The meeting was organized by the members of the Akurinu Group.

However, a section of legislators from the Mount Kenya Region allied to President William Ruto hold a different opinion to the recent happenings.

Despite the political bickering between the two factions divided by loyalty the leaders are reading from the same script on one thing, the cup of wrath of the Mungiki.

The Central Region security apparatus says it is monitoring the situation following this recent development. 

In 2002, 2010, and 2016 the government banned a total of 116 organised gangs, majority linked to political activities, in response to brutal murders, extortion attributed to them.

According to a study report on organized gangs in Kenya 2012 by the National Crime Research Centre, organized criminal gangs have a strong influence on the country’s political system. Politicians support the gangs in various ways in return for intimidation of opponents, protection, campaigns and votes.