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Kenya police vow to stop soaring crime wave (2) |
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09:00, July 07, 2007 |
Ali said police officers were under instructions to deal decisively with Mungiki sect members and other thugs in the country.
The Mungiki draws its ranks mainly from the Kikuyu, the most populous tribe in the country, and started off as a religious group urging the community to return to traditional values such as circumcising girls.
More than 100 people have been killed in the past few months by the Mungiki criminal gang or by police hunting them down.
The surging violence, which comes in the run-up to Kenya''s general elections scheduled for the end of this year, has triggered a fierce police response which has left almost 70 Mungiki members dead and seen more than 3,000 arrests nationwide.
Police have foiled various robberies in several parts of the country, particularly in the capital of Nairobi which records the highest number of carjackings and other armed robberies.
"What we have done so far is commendable and we continue to encourage our officers to keep up with the good work," he said, regretting the loss of lives perpetuated by criminals including the death of 11 police officers felled in the line of duty last month.
Security forces have in turn intensified their fight on crime, killing over 20 suspected criminals in the city in the past two days across the country.
The crackdown started in early June after Mungiki members killed two police officers in a Nairobi slum.
In a major crackdown in a Nairobi''s sprawling Mathare slums, police shot dead at least 33 Mungiki suspects in retaliation for the killing of two of their colleagues.
Dozens of criminals without links to the sect have also been killed by police forces on high alert across Kenya.
The latest violence has set off an acrimonious debate, with critics accusing some politicians of exploiting the country''s jobless youth to spark unrest ahead of the elections.
Source: Xinhua
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