Kenya: City violence kills 17 people

(SomaliNet) Kenya’s police said on Friday that 17 people were killed in and around the Kenyan capital Nairobi, including two people found beheaded and 14 killed in gun battles.

According to news reports, three people, including the two who were beheaded, were found slain an area on the outskirts of Nairobi where police have been cracking down on the banned sect Mungiki.

The provincial commissioner of Central Province, Kiplimo Rugut, confirmed the three were found dead. A police officer at the scene, who didn\'t want to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the press, said two were beheaded.

In another development, police shot eight suspects who were trying to rob a warehouse of the Kenya Electricity Generating Company Ltd., said Julius Muthuri, a police official in the industrial area of Nairobi.

\"Police shot down eight suspects who wanted to rob KenGen,\" he said. KenGen produces about 80 percent of the electricity consumed in the country.

Another gunbattle in eastern Nairobi killed six people, according to another police officer who did not want his name used because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

The sect is inspired by the 1950s Mau Mau uprising against British rule and has become linked to murder, political violence, and extortion. The group is suspected in the deaths of at least 20 people in the past three months, including 12 found mutilated or beheaded since May.

The group was outlawed in 2002 after at least 20 people were killed in fighting between it and another gang called the Taliban, whose members come from the Luo tribe of western Kenya.-AP