Kenya: Muslim cleric killed, riots erupt

  1. Posted on Tuesday 28 August 2012 - 09:01
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    Alex Kiarie, AfricaNews reporter in Nairobi, Kenya
    A radical Muslim cleric suspected to have links with terrorist networks, was shot dead by unknown assailants on Monday, in the Kenyan Coastal city of Mombasa. Sheikh Aboud Rogo Mohammed, a maverick preacher who has been accused by the American and british governments of having links with the Al-Qaeda and Al-Shabaab, was killed when gunmen sprayed the van he was driving in Mombasa's Mtwapa suburb.
    Kenya
    Apart from him, four other people who were in the van were seriously injured.

    According to Sheikh Rogo's wife, Haniya said Saadar, the fiery preacher was taking one of the passengers to hospital when the gunmen struck.

    As the news of his death spread, Muslim youths in Mombasa staged a violent protest that left one person dead, and one church torched. The conflict between the demonstrators and the police was sparked by the youths attempt to seize the cleric's body from a private ambulance that had been hired to ferry it, together with the shootout survivors to the Coast provincial Hospital.

    The youths claimed that they wanted to bury the body as per the Islamic rites.

    Sheikh Aboud Rogo has been seen as a divisive figure in the Muslim community, due to his radical sermons, and also because he was seen by many as one of the supporters of Islamic fundamentalism. He was put on the US terror list a few years ago.
    The man has had many run ins with the Kenyan law enforcement agencies on many occasions. Due to what many people see as many loopholes in the Kenyan criminal law on terrorism, and flawed investigation by the Kenyan Police, the sheikh was released on technicalities and for lack of enough evidence.

    In January this year, the Police raided his Mombasa home and recovered an arms cache. Later on in August, he was charged for planning a terrorist attack on the public, and was released on a USD 60,000 bail.

    The preacher was also the brains behind the Muslim Youth Centre that was based in a Nairobi slum, which the United Nations accused of being the recruitment base for Al-Shabaab. Unconfirmed reports indicate that the Al-Shabaab terror group has vowed revenge for what they term as an assassination of the cleric.

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