Kenya: Chaos Erupts in Mombasa After Killing of Cleric

Posted by admin Africa & World Politics, Headlines Monday, August 27th, 2012

Mombasa is a scene of chaos as Muslim youth protest the killing of controversial cleric Sheik Aboud Rogo.

A crowd of rowdy youth overpowered police, who had gone to the scene of the killing to collect the body of the Sheik, and buried the deceased. The protests are fast spreading to the northern part of the coast.

Rogo was in his car with his family when his assailants shot him in the head.His wife and daughter also sustained injuries. Rogo had recently claimed that unknown people attempted to abduct him in Nairobi. The cleric had recorded a statement at Kamukunji police station that a group of about 10 people had accosted him minutes after he arrived from Mombasa by bus and attempted to abduct him and his co- accused Abubakar Shari Ahmed.

In the statement, the two said they struggled with their would-be abductors before being rescued by members of the public during the incident on River Road. They said they fear for their lives especially after other terror suspects Sheikh Samir Khan and Sheikh Mohammed Kassim were abducted in a similar way and went missing. Khan’s body was later found in Tsavo West National Park but Kassim has never been traced.

Rogo is alleged to have introduced Mohammed Kubwa Mohammed to Fazul Abdullah Mohammed who were later indicted by a US court for the 2008 attack on the US Embassy in Nairobi. Rogo was arrested in 2003 and later released after being acquitted of all the charges. He was rearrested in Kilifi and charged with engaging in organised crime as a member of al Shabaab. He was arrested on January 30 in Mombasa and charged with being in possession of illegal firearms, ammunition, hand grenades and detonators.

Following Rogo’s killing, clashes occurred between the rowdy crowd and Jua Kali artisans in which one person has been confirmed dead after being hit on the head with a sharp object. Several cars have been torched, among them a government vehicle and a security firm van. The protesters broke into four churches in the Saba Saba area.

Sheik Aboud Rogo died after the vehicle he was traveling in was sprayed with bullets by unknown assailants. His wife and his father who were with him at the time were also injured in the morning event that occurred in the Bamburi area near along the Mombasa-Malindi highway. Police say investigations into the killing are underway.wp_posts