Kenyan villagers, gang clash killing 28

GATHAITHI – Villagers in central Kenya clashed with an outlawed criminal gang using machetes, axes and clubs, killing at least 28 people and leaving streets stained with blood, police said yesterday.

Residents near the town of Karatina fought Mungiki members overnight because the gang had been extorting money from them, deputy police spokesman Charles Owino said.
‘The majority of the dead are Mungiki members,’ Owino told The Associated Press.
The Mungiki emerged in the 1990s, inspired by the 1950s Mau Mau rebellion against British colonial rule, and the gang has been linked to extortion, murder and political violence. The group is believed to have thousands of followers, drawn from the Kikuyu, Kenya’s largest tribe and the dominant force in the country’s politics and business.
Kenya is riven by ethnic loyalties and the country’s dozens of other tribes have long resented the dominance of the Kikuyu. Tribal-based election riots that erupted early in 2008 killed more than 1 000 people dead and forced tens of thousands from their homes.
In the village of Gathaithi, where the attacks took place overnight, the scene was eerily quiet yesterday morning. Shops were shuttered and women milled around
– Nampa-AP