NAIROBI, June 6, 2008 (AFP) - Suspected members of Kenya's banned Mungiki gang murdered a pastor by slitting his throat and skinned his face in the country's western town of Eldoret, police said Friday.

The gruesome murder sparked demonstrations late Thursday by protestors demanding tougher police action against the gang, a mafia-like organisation running an extortion empire in the country and notorious for its brutal methods.

'We are investigating the murder which has been linked to the notorious Mungiki sect members,' said Munga Nyale, head of Eldoret's Criminal Investigation Department.

In the capital Nairobi, three suspected Mungiki members were killed in separate incidents, two of them stoned to death by residents.

Police shot dead the third and arrested six Mungiki followers.

The Mungiki gang was once a quasi-religious group of dreadlocked youths who embraced traditional rituals, but it has evolved into a powerful crime ring with political links that police have been trying to eradicate.