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Citizen Weekly

Sunday 9 November 2014

HOW WITHCDOCTOR MISLED YOUTH TO ATTACK MOMBASA BARRACKS

Details of how the Nyali military barracks attacks were planned and executed have now emerged and police are said to be following the leads.
Sources say the attackers who raided the military barracks on Sunday are reported to have converged at a home of a respected witchdoctor in Kazandani area of Kisauni where they were administered with charms which made them believe no bullet fired at them would penetrate their bodies.
It is against such belief that they went to attack the highly guarded and protected area only armed with pangas and machetes and not guns. It is claimed that part of the group had been undergoing secret military training and oath taking inside Kaya forests in Kwale and Kilifi in the last six months.
It has come to surface that the attackers are members of Nyuki Movement, a military wing of the outlawed Mombasa Republican Council. The government has since listed Nyuki Movement as part of 12 MRC offshoot groups some of which have been carrying out attacks on police stations with an aim of stealing guns.
But police sources have, however, revealed that the attackers had undergone training at Kaya Jibana and Chonyi in Kilifi while others underwent paramilitary training at Muhaka forest in Kwale.
But other sources have also revealed that one of the attackers, who is being interrogated by a joint team from the police and the military, is reported to have told the investigators the witchdoctor shaved their heads clean, tied their heads with navy blue ribbons and ordered them to put on black clothes before administering unknown concoctions on them hours before the attacks.
According to those who have been interrogating the suspect, he claims that the witchdoctor assured them that no bullets would penetrate their body and that the heavy rains, which began at around 11pm on Saturday, were an indication their mission had the blessing of their gods and therefore it was necessary they execute it the same day.
Vice Chief of Defence Forces Samson Mwathethe reported that the attackers wanted to steal guns. MRC has carried out numerous attacks on police stations where they have stolen close to 100 guns in the last seven years. None of the stolen weapons has ever been recovered.
Other police sources claimed the men are part of a group of youth busted by the police while undergoing military training in Kaya Chonyi and Jibana in July.
During the raid, police recovered homemade guns, arrows and bows, machetes and axes among other weapons.
But MRC secretary general Randu Nzai in a quick rejoinder denounced claims of Nyuki Movement being an offshoot of his group. “We do not know this group you are calling Nyuki. MRC is still intact and it has no breakaway groups or a military wing because it is not founded on violence,” he said.
During the attack, a soldier and six youths were killed. According to Department of Defence headquarters, the incident happened at about 5.30 am last Sunday. Spokesman Col David Obonyo said a gang of about 15 tried to gain entry into heavily fortified 17 Kenya Rifles barracks in Nyali, Mombasa when the incident happened.
“One of the attackers approached the sentry while armed with a panga and attacked a soldier before his colleagues followed him prompting the other soldiers to open fire,” said Col Obonyo. The soldiers on sentry duties responded by killing five attackers on the spot as the rest of the gang disappeared in a nearby forest.
In 2012, Kaloleni DC Fredrick Ayieko alleged that MRC was increasingly recruiting children for military activities. He added that witchdoctors are participating in binding children to MRC’s cause by administering oaths and warned parents to ensure their children are not snatched away by the secessionists.
“In the recent past, we have witnessed cases where young people get recruited to MRC before they are taken to witchdoctors where they take oaths. This trend will not be allowed by government,” said Ayieko.

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