Deadly cult has Nairobi on edge

NAIROBI, Kenya, June 28 (UPI) -- An anti-Western cult in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi has been blamed for at least 30 gruesome deaths since April and is growing in impoverished areas.

The group is called Mungiki, meaning "the masses," and operates similar to Mafia organizations in secret oaths, extorting money and eliminating the non-compliant by beheading them and drinking their blood, a Chicago Tribune foreign correspondent reported.

Political scientist Peter Kagwanja has researched the cult and said the cult, whose members worship African ancestors, began beheading its victims only after watching insurgent videos from Iraq.

"They told me they had to keep up with the times," said Kagwanja. "Globalized violence finds its home in Kenya's slums."

The Mungiki movement was inspired by the Mau Mau rebels who fought the British 50 years ago and emerged in the late 1980s, the report said.

The group's latest victims were found hacked to pieces in a Nairobi slum last Friday, local media said.