Mungiki and Oscar

On Thursday evening, two human rights activists were shot and killed while in traffic in central Nairobi. The men had been vocal critics of extrajudicial killings by the police, particularly those targeting suspected members of the Mungiki, a criminal gang that commits grizzly crimes and runs extortion rackets, most prominently for the network of minibuses in Nairobi and central Kenya. The government spokesman called the activists a front for the Mungiki. A UN human rights investigator who visited the country last month to probe police killings called for an international investigation, seconded by Kenya's prime minister. The episode has set off a lot of debate. If you're interested, check out the comments on this post from the Kenyan blog You Missed This, split pretty evenly between those calling the activists Mungiki sympathizers or compatriots, and those saying they were merely defending people's rights, not unlike the big-time lawyers defending corrupt politicians.