Ex-Mungiki chief surfaces, refutes ICC role rumour

TUESDAY, 04 OCTOBER 2011 00:05 BY JAMES WAINAINA

PIQUED: Former Mukingi leader, Ndura Waruinge addressing press in a hotel at Kenol in Muranga. Photo/James Wainaina

FORMER Mungiki sect leader Ndura Waruinge who many thought will be a prosecution witness at the ICC has broken his silence and declared that he will not be going to The Hague. Speaking at Kabati in Murang’a County, Waruinge said he had no evidence to present at the ICC. 

He dismissed Ocampo’s prosecution case saying it was being pushed by the American government and its western allies because Kenya had established links with the Eastern block. Waruinge is now a pastor who founded the Universals Salvation and Restoration ministry which has 16 branches in Kenya and one in the US.

He said that Ocampo’s 12 prosecution witnesses are asylum seekers looking for greener pastures abroad. Waruinge added that Ocampo's evidence on Uhuru Kenyatta's association with the Mungiki is shoddy. He said the Deputy Prime Minister was not a member of his former sect.

The evangelist said that although he had abandoned Mungiki, he still enjoys rapport with the outlawed movement thought to have four million followers. “If Ocampo wanted to know whether Uhuru Kenyatta had any tangible link with Mungiki, he ought to have interviewed me as the founder and  leader of the proscribed religion," he said.

Waruinge said that Mungiki followers decamped to the Ocampo prosecution side after demanding money (extortion) from PNU which landed into the pockets of a clique in the sect. He said the ICC process had deprive Kenya of its judicial powers and allowed in foreigners. Waruinge said if the Ocampo Six were being tried in Kenya, he would be a defence witness for Uhuru and Head of the Civil Service Francis Muthaura.

He said he had instructed his lawyers to pursue details of PNU advisor Peter Kagwanja whose “evidence” Ocampo is relying on to associate Uhuru Kenyatta with Mungiki. “If they find anything that ought to be legally squared out I have instructed them to proceed to court,” he said. Waruinge decried consumption of illicit brews in Central province and claimed a million youths had died because of the brew.

He claimed that there is a sinister plan to eliminate youth in Central province so that some people can ascend to power easily. Waruinge said a certain presidential aspirant who is being fronted by the west (America) was behind the clandestine scheme. The former Mungiki sect leader said that America was behind the chaos being witnessed in Africa. “America is to oust and dismantle Africa leaders,” said Waruinge.