Fourteen people were killed on Monday in Kenya when police clashed with members of a banned sect who went on the rampage and burned many vehicles after the murder of the wife of their jailed leader.

Police said five people were killed in Nairobi, five in the Rift Valley and four in central Kenya regions, where members of the outlawed Mungiki sect were blocking roads and stoning motorists.

Nine of those killed were Mungiki members shot dead by police, while three were reportedly civilians caught up in the violence. Two others were lynched by members of the public, police officials said.

The demonstrations were not linked to the political violence that rocked the east African nation earlier this year and claimed at least 1500 lives while displacing hundreds of thousands of people, police said.

Country-wide crackdown

"A crackdown has been mounted all over the country against this criminal gang and legal action will be taken against all those who destroyed other people's property," police spokesperson Eric Kiraithe told a news conference.

"We have responded with full force and our officers are in all the affected parts of the country. They are clearing the roads and dispersing members of these gangs," he said.

"We want to send a clear message to them that no one will be spared in this operation. They will regret what they are doing... We assure the public that peace will be restored and all these hooligans brought to book."

Mungiki spokesperson Njuguna Gitau said the movement, which was banned in 2002, will continue to press for its rights despite police brutality.

"I wish to confirm that we are the ones who called for the countrywide civil disobedience and mass protests. We shall not relent. We are not cowards and the police should know that well," Gitau said in a statement.

"We shall not be cowed by the police brutality. We shall continue demanding for our rights."

Cops battle Nairobi youths

Police said more than 30 vehicles were burnt in the capital as police battled youths mainly in Nairobi slums, where the riots started early on Monday, a commander told AFP.

The key road to western Kenya was blocked at the Rift Valley towns of Nakuru, Naivasha and Eldoret. More violence was reported in the central Kenyan towns of Thika and Muranga, police said.

The Mungiki sect was once a religious group of dreadlocked youths who embraced traditional rituals, but the authorities say it has evolved into a ruthless criminal gang involved in extortion and murder.

The Mungiki members were protesting the killing of Virginia Nyakio, the wife of imprisoned sect leader Maina Njenga. Nyakio's mutilated body was recovered on Friday — three days after she was seized by unknown kidnappers.

The sect blamed police for Nyakio's killing, alongside those of three other people.

"Let it be known that police were not involved at all in the killing of Virginia Nyakio and the driver. Evidence has so far indicated that the two were killed as a result of disgreements within the gang," Kiraithe added.

He added that police were probing allegations that the woman was gang-raped before she was slain.

Mungiki spokespersons told Kenyan media they would avenge the killing of their members and accused the government of targeting them in the latest crackdown.

Since March last year, the Mungiki gang has been blamed for murdering dozens of people, including several by beheading, mainly in the slum districts of the capital Nairobi and in central Kenya.

Police responded with a crackdown in which they killed scores of gang members.

Mungiki — whose name is the Kikuyu word for "multitude" — currently operates cartels in the public transport sector.

AFP