Riots in Mombasa after killing of Muslim cleric

MOMBASA: The daughter of Muslim cleric Aboud Rogo cries out as Rogo’s father holds the slumped and bloodstained body of his son in the vehicle where Rogo was shot dead near the Jomo Kenyatta Public beach yesterday. – AP

 MOMBASA, Kenya: Deadly riots broke out in Kenya’s main port of Mombasa yesterday after the assassination of a radical cleric linked to Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-allied Shabab militants. At least one person was hacked to death as thousands of angry protesters took to the streets after Aboud Rogo Mohammed – who was on US and UN sanction lists for allegedly supporting the Shabab – was shot dead. “A car behind us aimed at my husband, they shot him on the right side,” said his widow Haniya Said, screaming in grief after the killing by unknown attackers. “One person has been killed, he was slashed to death during the protests,” said regional police chief Aggrey Adoli.

Cars were set on fire and two churches were looted in the city – Kenya’s main port and a key tourist hub. “There is chaos in town now, and our officers are on the ground dispersing the rioters to maintain peace,” added Adoli. “They are demonstrating against the killing of Aboud Rogo, who was shot by unknown people.” Witnesses said that Rogo’s car was riddled with bullets, and a photograph released by his supporters showed his bloody corpse slumped behind the wheel of a car. “He died as we rushed him to hospital. Why have they killed my dear husband?” his widow added, before she and her children were taken to the hospital.

Rogo was placed on a US sanctions list in July for “engaging in acts that directly or indirectly threaten the peace, security or stability of Somalia”, specifically for recruiting and fundraising for the hardline Shebab. The United Nations Security Council placed a travel ban and asset freeze on the cleric in July, saying he had provided “financial, material, logistical or technical support to Al-Shabab”. He was the “main ideological leader” of Kenya’s Al Hijra group, also known as the Muslim Youth Center (MYC), the UN said. The group is viewed as a close ally of the Shabab in Kenya. Rogo “used the extremist group as a pathway for radicalisation and recruitment of principally Swahili-speaking Africans for carrying out violent militant activity in Somalia”, the UN said.

MYC leader Sheikh Ahmad Iman Ali, in a message posted on Twitter, said: “We are on the right track when our leaders get shahadah (martyrdom).” “He will remain in our hearts forever,” the MYC added, while another message offered the grim warning that the “kuffar (infidels) will pay” for his death. “The whole city is on fire, there are looters in the streets, cars have been damaged, some have been burnt,” said Francis Auma, from the local organisation Muslims for Human Rights. “An imam in the mosque shouted through the speaker ‘blood for blood’, and immediately youths started stoning cars,” said witness Dennis Odhiambo, whose car was damaged and who was forced to flee into a police station for safety.

Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga condemned Rogo’s “horrific” murder, adding the government was “committed to bringing whoever was responsible to justice”. “I appeal to our people not to use this sad act to inflict more pain and suffering on our country,” he said in a statement. The local Muslim Human Rights Forum also condemned the assassination, claiming it “mirrors” the recent killings or disappearance of others “on the country’s terrorism watch list”. The rights group said another Mombasa-based Muslim preacher, Samir Hashim Khan, together with a blind colleague, Mohamed Bekhit Kassim, were abducted in April, and Khan’s badly mutilated body was found dumped at a national park near Mombasa. His colleague’s whereabouts are unknown.

Later many shops were shuttered and streets usually thronging with shoppers and foreign tourists were deserted as many barricaded themselves indoors. Tourist operators said they feared the violence could hit their business. “It is too early to tell, but already the demonstrations are not good for us. They send a negative signal… violence is dangerous for our tourism,” said Mohammed Hersi, who runs the Whitesands Hotel, the largest resort on the coast, as well as an association that acts as an umbrella group for tour operators.

Rogo “repeatedly called for the violent rejection of the Somali peace process”, the US Treasury said, noting he had often advocated the use of violence against both the UN and the African Union force battling the Shabab in Somalia. He “urged his audiences to travel to Somalia to join Al-Shebab’s fight against the Kenyan government”, the Treasury added.

Kenyan police arrested the preacher in January, seizing firearms, ammunition and detonators, but later released him on bail. He was previously acquitted of the 2002 bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel near Mombasa which killed 15 people – 12 Kenyans and three Israelis – as well as three suicide bombers. The cleric is also alleged to have introduced Fazul Abdullah Mohammed – the late head of Al-Qaeda’s east Africa cell, shot dead last year in Somalia’s war-torn capital Mogadishu – to at least one of the men who helped him carry out the twin US embassy bombings in 1998. The bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam killed 224 people. Rogo, born on Kenya’s Lamu island, was aged between 43 and 52, according to different aliases. – Agencies

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