Riots shake Kenya's Mombasa after Muslim cleric slain
Tue Aug 28, 2012 10:46am GMT
* Anti-riot police disperse stone-throwing youths
* Fears violence could escalate after cleric shot dead
* Al Shabaab urges Kenyan Muslims to defend themselves
By Joseph Akwiri
MOMBASA, Kenya, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Kenyan anti-riot police clashed with
stone-throwing youths in the port city of Mombasa on Tuesday in a second day
of violence ignited by the killing of a Muslim cleric accused by the United
States of helping Islamist militants in Somalia.
Police fired tear gas and warning shots as youths barricaded streets with
burning tyres in the predominantly Muslim Majengo neighbourhood. Mobs
marauded around Mombasa's city centre, taunting police who arrested some of
the protesters.
Shopkeepers reported looting in some areas of Kenya's second biggest city, a
tourist hub with a major Indian Ocean port.
"People are breaking into our shops and looting our property and police are
doing nothing," said Francis Mutua, 33, a kiosk owner who said he and his
colleagues had beaten up offender.
Shopkeeper Kassim Ali also complained about police as they cleared a
smouldering roadblock nearby. "These people, the police, are joking. They
are taking this thing lightly, but the way I see it, it will not be good,"
he said.
One person was killed in riots on Monday when protesters torched some
churches, stoking fears that the unrest may become more sectarian in a city
where grenade attacks blamed on Somali militants and their sympathisers have
already strained Muslim-Christian relations. Mombasa has a big Muslim
minority.
Police and Muslim leaders had described the church burnings as impulsive,
not premeditated. On Tuesday the gangs of youths appeared to focus their
anger more on the police.
Church leaders scrapped plans for a peaceful march for fear it might incite
further clashes in a country where overall relations with minority Muslims
have been relatively good.
The unrest began after gunmen killed Muslim cleric Aboud Rogo on Monday,
spraying his car with bullets in an attack many Muslims in Mombasa blamed on
the police, who denied involvement.
RADICAL PREACHER
Washington and Nairobi had both accused the preacher of helping al Shabaab,
Somalia's Islamist rebel group.
The al Qaeda-linked militant group urged Kenyan Muslims on Tuesday to
protect their religion at all costs and boycott next year's presidential
election. It condemned what it called a "witch-hunt" against Muslims by the
Kenyan authorities.
"Muslims must take the matter into their own hands, stand united against the
Kuffar (non-believers) and take all necessary measures to protect their
religion, their honour, their property and their lives from the enemies of
Islam," al Shabaab said in a statement posted on the social media site
Twitter.
The violence could worsen if it taps into long-standing local grievances
over land ownership and unemployment, as well as calls by the Mombasa
Republican Council (MRC) for the coastal strip to secede. The MRC said it
was not involved in the unrest.
Prolonged trouble in Mombasa would hit Kenya's vital tourism industry,
already damaged by the kidnappings of Western women tourists from beach
resorts by Somali gunmen.
"Right now we have closed all our tourists in the hotels. We can't take them
on safaris, we can't take them on tours of cultural sights ... because it is
unsafe," said Titus Kangangi, owner of the Platinum hotel just north of
Mombasa.
Mohammed Hersi, who runs the Whitesands Hotel, the largest resort on the
coast, said tourists were worried. "It's tricky to even take them or pick
them from the airport because the main highway from the airport is the
epicentre of the chaos."
The unrest could also knock trade and transport to Kenya's landlocked
neighbours. Rwanda and Uganda rely on Mombasa port for imports of food,
consumer goods and fuel.
C Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved
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Received on Tue Aug 28 2012 - 12:03:09 EDT
