throwing scheduled peace talks between the gang and the government into disarray, the dead man’s deputy and an official said. Stephen Njenga said Charles Ndungu, a leader of the Mungiki gang, was on his way to visit another gang leader in prison when he and his driver were shot to death on the outskirts of the capital.
Njenga blamed an undercover police unit for the killings but police said the identities of the killers were unknown.
Police and gang members have clashed repeatedly in the past two weeks. Rights groups have also linked the police to hundreds of extrajudicial killings of suspected gang members last year.
Negotiations for peace between gang members and authorities were due to begin Tuesday but at least one official said the murder meant he would not be attending.
“I’m not going; I fear for my life,” said former provincial commissioner Cyrus Maina, who had been due to meet the gang’s imprisoned leader, Maina Njenga, along with a Catholic bishop, a member of the intelligence services and a representative of the prime minister.
Maina declined to name his co-negotiators or speculate on whether they would attend talks at the maximum security prison.
The dead man’s deputy, Stephen Njenga, said he would not comment on the peace talks before consulting other members. But he accused police of the killing, saying, “The last phone call we got, we heard Ndungu saying the police were shooting at his car. We heard two gunshots over the phone.”
Stephen Njenga and Maina Njenga are not related.
Senior police superintendent Jay Munyambu said Monday that police received information that two cars were chasing each other when someone in one of the vehicles opened fire.
“Nobody was talking to us at the scene, we could not identify the victims. It is very hard to say who they are. It is not easy to tell who the shooters were,” Munyambu said.
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