FRUSTRATED

Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Monday revealed the frustrations he had faced in his effort to meet Mungiki leaders and engage them in dialogue over the last two years.

According to a source who attended Monday’s meeting between the PM and 12 top leaders of the outlawed sect, Mr Odinga revisited at length the historical injustices perpetrated by successive governments including his incarceration by the Moi administration.

Monday’s meeting came two years after Mr Odinga publicly said he was ready to meet the sect leaders.

In April 2008, during his swearing-in as Prime Minister, Mr Odinga extended an olive branch to members of the sect following widespread riots after Mr Njenga’s wife was killed in Nairobi together with her driver.

On Monday, Mr Odinga and the Mungiki leaders also discussed how the government could help buy about eight million tree seedlings the members had planted through their Greening Kenya Programme.

“We are seeking the government’s help to dispose the seedlings and give the young men a job to do,” said Mr Njenga. In 2005, the sect, like Mr Odinga, opposed the then proposed constitution which was defeated.