The leader of a banned Kenyan gang has been freed after charges that he murdered 28 people were dropped.

Maina Njenga was freed on Friday and called on all fellow Mungiki members to renounce membership and become Christians.

Speaking in a church in the centre of Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, Njenga said: "I have now come to learn that there is something bigger than what is in that mountain... I want to be singing in the church and then I get baptised.

"Those others out there who have not come up publicly should follow suit and get saved and get out of the Mungiki."

Njenga had led Mungiki, a pseudo-religious group of dreadlocked youths who worshipped spirits in Mount Kenya and embraced rituals such as female circumcision.

The group degenerated into a violent criminal gang notorious for gruesome murders, extortion and harassment.

Free man

Njenga's lawyer said he had been freed after prosecutors said they did not plan to proceed against him.

Paul Muite said: "My client is a free man... He was set free alongside 21 other co-accused in the case."
   
Njenga was first jailed in 2007 for drugs and firearms possession. That ruling was quashed by a higher court in May, although Njenga was re-arrested and charged with dozens of murders carried out in a central Kenyan town.

Mungiki, which means "multitude" in Kikuyu, claims to be a sect founded by Mau Mau fighters who fought against British colonial rule.
  
They have the reputation of killing all those who try to leave the group.