KENYA has scores of youth gangs known for their violence and links to the politically powerful. None is more infamous than the Mungiki movement, with a past membership estimated to be at least a million. Though banned, it’s constantly in the news as a tool or target of big political players. Bodil Folke Frederiksen, who has studied Mungiki as part of her field-based research on youth culture in Kenya, traces the origins, growth and persistence of the group. BODIL FOLKE FREDERIKSEN, Associate Professor Emerita, Roskilde University What gave rise to Mungiki? Mungiki emerged in the late 1980s in what was…