‘What kind of hell is this!’ Understanding the Mungiki movement's power of mobilisation

Abstract

There is a flourishing of collective actors such as vigilante groups, militias and gangs that could be termed ‘uncivil society’. These actors often have a ‘Janus faced’ nature and slide between roles as legitimate providers of social services and oppressors of communities. A potent channel for the articulation of grievances of underprivileged youths in particular, due to their illegality or militancy these actors are often disqualified from participation in formal political arenas. A case in point is the Mungiki movement in Kenya. How exactly Mungiki attains its capacity to mobilise thousands, if not millions, of members requires more nuanced explanations for why young men in particular are attracted to the movement and what effect this has on their lives. A ‘framing-based’ analysis from social movement studies is used to interpret empirical findings that draw on in-depth interviews with grassroots members. The article finds mobilisation a response to both social and personal crisis but with attendant programmatic responses that empower members.

Keywords:

• Kenya
• Mungiki
• social movement
• mobilisation
• framing-based

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Stephen Karanja, John Lonsdale, Jimmy Pieterse, also Ken Jones for very useful comments on previous drafts of the manuscript. Furthermore, the two referees provided comments that were both very encouraging and incisive, especially concerning understandings of mobilisation. Finally, we are grateful to the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for providing funding through their Peace and Reconciliation programme. The views expressed, however, remain those of the authors.

Notes

1. Comaroff and Comaroff, “Law and disorder in the postcolony: an introduction”.

2. Anderson, “Vigilantes, violence and the politics of public order in Kenya”; Kagwanja, “Facing Mount Kenya or Facing Mecca?; Kagwanja, “Power to Uhuru: Youth Identity and Generational Politics in Kenya's 2002 Elections”; Matumanga, “A City Under Siege: Banditry and Modes of Accumulation in Nairobi, 1991–2004”; Mueller, “The political economy of Kenya's crisis”; Ruteree, “Dillemas of crime, human rights and the politics of Mungiki violence in Kenya”.

3. Lonsdale, “Moral and political argument in Kenya”.

4. Rasmussen, “Mungiki as youth Movement”.

5. Turner and Brownhill, “Women never surrender”.

6. Rasmussen, “Mungiki as youth Movement”.

7. James Toth, “Local Islam gone global: the roots of religious militancy in Egypt and its transnational transformation”.

8. For a methodological balance, interviews also took place with non-members, and key informants, some of whom had their lives adversely impacted by Mungiki activities, with the authors therefore fully aware of such acts of oppression. We are nonetheless examining the construction of Mungiki ideology and mobilisation and hence the material gives priority to members’ own accounts.

9. Anderson, “Vigilantes, violence”.

10. Daily Nation, 18 June, 2010.

11. Kagwanja, “Facing Mount Kenya or Facing Mecca?”.

12. Kagwanja, “Facing Mount Kenya or Facing Mecca?”.

13. For a period in 2000 Mungiki, however, turned to Islam (Kagwanja “Facing Mount Kenya or Facing Mecca?”).

14. Mitullah, “Urban slum reports: the case of Nairobi, Kenya”.

15. Anderson, Histories of the Hanged.

16. Southall, “Re-forming the state?”

17. Anderson, “Vigilantes, violence”.

18. Turner and Brownhill, “Women never surrender”.

19. Anderson, “Vigilantes, violence”, Katumanga, “A city under siege”.

20. Southall, “Re-forming the state?”.

21. Githongo, “Fear and loathing in Nairobi”.

22. Della Porta and Diani, Social Movements.

23. Della Porta and Diani, Social Movements.

24. Richard Ballard, “Social movements in South Africa”.

25. Benford and Snow, “Framing Processes and Social Movements”.

26. Della Porta and Diani, Social Movements.

27. Benford and Snow, “Framing Processes”.

28. Benford and Snow, “Framing Processes”.

29. Lonsdale, “Moral and political argument”.

30. John Lonsdale,“Kenya: ethnicity, tribe and state”.

31. Several informants cited examples of fighters, such as the wife of the Mau Mau general Dedan Kimathi, who had been living a life in poverty, despite sacrifices made.

32. There is not the space to detail all the parallels to Mau Mau drawn by respondents, but one more included extra-judicial killings, for example.

33. All names of Mungiki local members’ respondents have been changed.

34. Benford and Snow, “Framing”.

35. Peters, “The ICC, Kenyatta and the Mungiki”.

36. Furedi, The Mau Mau War in Perspective.

37. Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox.

38. Comaroff and Comaroff , “Law and disorder in the postcolony”.