Military

DATE=10/25/00

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-268414

TITLE=KENYA / CULT (L-ONLY)

BYLINE=KATY SALMON

DATELINE=NAIROBI

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Nearly 800 people have been arrested in a series of police raids in Kenya. Katy Salmon reports from Nairobi that police are cracking down on members of the Mungiki sect, an underground cult that wants Kenyans to return to traditional African values.

TEXT: The raids lasted more than five hours. Security officers swept through the city, arresting suspected followers of the Mungiki cult. Police also seized more than one-thousand liters of traditional home-brew alcohol and a police uniform from houses in the area.

The Mungiki say they have four-million followers in Kenya, though this figure is generally thought to be exaggerated.

They call themselves the Sons of Mau Mau, after the legendary dread-locked freedom fighters of the 1950s who terrorized British colonialists. /// OPT /// The Mau Mau used to come out of their secret camps in the forest and murder white settlers while they slept. /// END OPT ///

The Mungiki are calling for a second Mau Mau uprising. They accuse President Daniel arap Moi's government of impoverishing the people by bad government and corruption.

The government charges that the Mungiki are training a private army to overthrow it. Police regularly raid the sect's private meetings and religious ceremonies.

The cult was formed in 1987 when its leader, Maina Mgenga, said he had a vision from God telling him to start preaching to people to cleanse themselves of Western influences and return to their traditional cultures.

Thousands of disaffected young Kenyans have since joined the group. Most are Kikuyus, the largest of Kenya's 42 tribes. Many Kikuyus believe they have been ignored by the Moi government.

/// REST OPT ///

Cult members are not allowed to smoke or drink alcohol. They snort snuff, often carried in beautiful ivory horns, to aid their meditation, and pray facing Mount Kenya, where they believe their god, Ngai, lives.

Women are forbidden from wearing miniskirts and female circumcision is encouraged, even though most Kikuyus abandoned the practice generations ago. The group also supports polygamy.

Police say one of the men arrested in their recent raid is being held on suspicion of having been part of a mob that recently stripped and whipped six women for wearing trousers. The Mungiki say women wearing trousers are un-African, and the practice can lead to prostitution.

The whipping was captured on film. When it was broadcast on national television, angry viewers called the television station to demand the arrest of the women's attackers.

The Mungiki deny any responsibility for the attack. (Signed)

NEB/KS/KL/WTW