Old video of Kenya’s Mungiki sect falsely linked to anticipated protests in November 2024

Ahead of President William Ruto’s state of the nation address in parliament on November 21, 2024, Kenyan police cautioned the public against staging or taking part in any protests. A post shared on X with a video of large crowds singing and chanting claimed to show members of the outlawed Mungiki sect protesting in the capital Nairobi on the day of the speech. This is false; while the footage shows a demonstration by members of the outlawed Mungiki sect, the video is more than a decade old.

“We’ve seen these patterns before—clandestine groups being used to intimidate citizens. But the Ngoroko-Mungiki alliance takes it to a horrifying new level,” reads the X post published on November 21, 2024.

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Screenshot of the false post, taken on November 25, 2024

Kenya’s Citizen TV logo can be seen in the bottom-right corner of the video clip. Presented as “breaking news”, the footage shows a large crowd singing and chanting, with some carrying a flag and others holding sticks.

At the beginning of the clip the chyron reads: “Mungiki occupy CBD”. It then changes to “Mungiki headed to CBD”.

CBD refers to Nairobi's Central Business District.

Music consistent with the Kikuyu tribe’s traditional folk songs can be heard in the video’s background. The Kikuyu form Kenya’s most populous ethnic group. In the local language, the word Mungiki means “multitude” (archived here).

The clip was also shared here on X.

Protests in Kenya

Kenyan police issued a statement on November 20, 2024 cautioning the public against taking part in any protests, following online reports of planned anti-government demonstrations amid Ruto’s state of the nation address (archived here and here).

According to the statement, the police had not been formally notified of the rumored protest as required by the Public Order Act (archived here).

Heavy police presence was reported in Nairobi’s CBD ahead of Ruto’s arrival at parliament buildings in anticipation of the planned demonstrations (archived here).

It followed countrywide protests witnessed earlier in the year, occasioned by the government’s proposed tax hikes (archived here and here).

However, the claim about the video is false.

Unrelated video 

A YouTube keyword search for “Mungiki” revealed a longer version of the clip published by Citizen TV more than 15 years ago, on March 5, 2009 (archived here).

According to the video’s description, the government had, at the time, issued a security alert over intelligence reports that members of the proscribed Mungiki sect were planning to hold demonstrations, warning that the illegal group was planning to paralyse public transport across the country.

AFP Fact Check matched screenshots taken from the clip in the false post with the original broadcast by Citizen TV.

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Screenshots comparing the original footage published by Citizen TV (left) and the false video, taken on November 27, 2024

Ultimately, the planned mass demonstrations on November 21, 2024, did not materialise, although local media reported that several activists were arrested for staging protests at parliament (archived here).

Mungiki sect 

Established in the late 1980s and later banned by the government, the Mungiki are a politico-religious sect in Kenya, composed mainly of members from the Kikuyu community (archived here).

The group has, over the years, been linked to criminal activities such as extortion and murder and was banned by Kenyan authorities in the early 2000s (archived here).

Also mentioned in the post is the Ngoroko, a group of raiders operating in northern Kenya (archived here).

There is no evidence to suggest a working alliance between the Mungiki and Ngoroko, as claimed in the post.