Listen to This Article Enhance your reading experience by listening to this article.

A section of Azimio La Umoja – One Kenya Alliance leaders have urged the government to stop profiling Mt Kenya youth by linking them to ‘non-existent’ Mungiki, an outlawed ethnic organization.

 The illegal sect that was in the past linked to terrorizing and extorting money from the public under the guise of offering them security in return has recently been at the centre of heightened political temperatures in central Kenya.

 Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and former leader of the illegal sect Maina Njenga have been at loggerheads after the second in command vowed to fight the mushrooming of the forbidden group which he blames for reportedly terrorizing community members and soliciting taxes from the public.

 While Gachagua says that attempts are being made to revive the criminal gang by recruiting the youth to engage in crimes, the opposition leadership yesterday took issue with the government for persecuting youngsters under the guise of fighting the banned group.

 Led by Wiper Party leader Kalonzo Musyoka and Minority leader in the National Assembly Opiyo Wandayi, the political outfit fingered the government for unwarranted attacks against the youth and changing tunes from offering them job opportunities to arresting and levelling trumped up charges against them.

The leaders called out the government for creating an artificial crisis to validate violence against innocent but unemployed youths and called on it to embark on creating empowerment programs that will reduce idleness among the youth.

Speaking at Jesus Christ Compassion Ministry (JCM) church in Ruiru, Kiambu county, the opposition leaders insisted that while youths have a constitutional right to associate, the outlawed Mungiki sect is non-existent and the government should stop describing youths bearing Kikuyu names as members of the group.

“There’s nothing called Mungiki in Kenya. Our youths have a constitutional right to associate but Mungiki is no longer there, it does not exist,” said Musyoka.