*Six beheadings blamed on Satanic sect shocks Kenyans*

By George Obulutsa

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Villagers found heads placed on poles and body parts
scattered in bushes in six murders the media blamed on Tuesday on an
outlawed satanic sect notorious for killing and extortion.

People in the country's central region found the heads and other remains
after attacks on Sunday and Monday.

The media blamed the killings on Mungiki, a banned group that has fought
weeks of battles with local minibus taxi operators who are resisting its
demands for protection money.

With presidential elections due in the east African nation in December,
many commentators suspected a political hand behind violence threatening
the government's authority.

"(Mungiki) is out to demonstrate that it can operate and strike with
impunity anywhere and everywhere," the Daily Nation newspaper said on
Tuesday in a front page editorial, below pictures of four of the six men
who were decapitated.

"It is out to show the police and other government organs are feeble,
helpless and unable to protect anyone who defies it."

Police said they would hold a briefing later on Tuesday.

Fear spread fast through the villages of Murang'a and Kiambu with some
families fleeing the area as the victims' remains were discovered.

"I had gone out to answer a call of nature at around 3 a.m. when I
switched on my torch and saw the head of a human being placed on the
roof of my chicken pen," Robert Kiunjuri, a teacher in Kianjogu village,
told the Nation.

The 50-year-old victim's headless body had been dragged to the nearby
home of a chief, where it was dumped at the gate.

Another head was found perched atop a telephone pole about a mile
(kilometre) away, and another found after villagers heard two dogs
fighting over it.

In neighbouring Kiambu, one head was left at a bus stop in the centre of
the main town, local media said. A torso and three amputated legs were
discovered in a ditch in a nearby village.

The victims all appeared to be local labourers and peasant farmers with
no known links to the shadowy sect.

Mungiki, whose name means "multitude" in the local Kikuyu language, was
banned in 2002 after members armed with knives and clubs killed more
than 20 people in a Nairobi slum.

The group instils fear by promoting archaic Kikuyu rituals like swearing
oaths, and many Kenyans believe it has been supported by corrupt
politicians in the past.

"The police cannot claim to be seriously investigating Mungiki if they
are not calling in for questioning such political leaders," the Nation
said. "Ultimately, the government must take full responsibility for
failing to contain what is now clearly a national security issue."