Gunned down in Mombasa - the clerics that have died
MOMBASA, 28 July 2014 (IRIN) - More than 21 Islamic clerics have been gunned
down in Kenya's southeastern port city of Mombasa over the past two years,
according to the human rights group
<
http://www.irinnews.org/pdf/HAKI_extra_judicial_killings.docx> Haki Africa.
All but one of them was linked by the government to terrorism and support
for the al-Shabab insurgency in neighboring Somalia.
The Kenyan government has strenuously denied allegations the security forces
are involved in extra-judicial killings. Mombasa Country Commissioner Nelson
Marwa told IRIN: "It is easy to point fingers, but do they have any
evidence?" Human rights groups have called for the killings to be
investigated.
Mombasa is fertile recruiting ground for al-Shabab, working through radical
mosques and clerics. These leaders portray the conflict across the border as
jihad, and for many youth, that has an energizing appeal. "In the
competition for followers, the moderates appear to be losing the battle for
winning over the youth," said Hussein Khaled of Haki Africa. "The killing of
so-called radical imams is winning them [the militants] sympathy and
support."
Sheik Juma Ngao of the Kenya Muslim National Advisory Council described the
recruitment as "human trafficking in the name of jihad". He alleged each
young man crossing the border earns the recruiter the equivalent of
US$1,150. And, he added, "they don't go for the scholars, they go for the
poor."
But Khaled described a deepening well of
<
http://www.irinnews.org/report/100394/analysis-conflict-dynamics-on-kenya-s
-coast> anger fuelled by joblessness and a growing perception among some
Muslims in Mombasa, overlooked by historically skewed development, of
injustice; that they are no longer "part of Kenya". The death of each cleric
in suspicious circumstances furthers radicalization. "It's gone beyond the
money a recruit might earn. They are now doing it in the belief that they
are being harassed, killed, and the only way is to fight back," he said.
There is friction between clerics splintered into several organizations in
Mombasa, based on ideological conviction, and the growing danger of being
perceived as on the "wrong" side. "Moderates" accuse "radicals" of
deliberately grooming young men for combat in the name of Islam, while the
Salafists condemn the silence and lack of indignation from their
co-religionists when one of them is killed.
Haki Africa has held three meetings to try and bridge the "huge gulf of
misunderstanding". The consensus from both sides was "leave us alone to
practice our interpretation," said Khaled.
"They were open that they were for jihad and that they will die for it,"
said Ngao, who was at the meetings. "They said 'If you don't support us,
leave us alone, don't touch us. But if you touch us, we'll kill you'."
Said Khaled: "When we went into dialogue we didn't understand what the youth
were going through. You can't divorce from this the discrimination and
marginalization of the region. We had only been exposed to one side [of the
argument]. So the government needs to encourage inter- and intra-religious
dialogue."
But the killing in April of Sheikh Makaburi, a prominent leader at the
controversial Masjid Musa Mosque, has put dialogue on hold. The shooting of
moderate Sheikh Mohammed Idriss in June, the chair of the Council of Imams
and Preachers of Kenya, is widely seen as revenge for his death.
The July murder of Shahid Bhat on his way home from the airport has further
heightened tensions. Bhat, a successful businessman, had been arrested and
charged with financing terror operations in Mombasa and the coast. He was
shot 200m from the Changamwe police station.
The following is a list of Muslim clerics and youth leaders killed in or
around Mombasa in the past two years. In each case no arrests have yet been
made.
10 April 2012: Sheikh Mohammed Kassim
Linked to the Machakos Country bus blast in which six people died and over
60 were injured, Mohammed Kassim's body was found in a Kilifi mortuary
several kilometres from his Mombasa home. His relatives said he was abducted
from a matatu (public transport vehicle) in Mombasa's Likoni area before
being bundled into another vehicle before his death.
13 April 2012: Sheikh Samir Khan
The body of the Muslim cleric was found dumped, and mutilated, in Tsavo
Forest in Taita Taveta County along the Nairobi-Mombasa highway three days
after he was reported missing. A former confidant of controversial Muslim
preacher Aboud Rogo Mohammed, the 39-year-old was facing several terror
related charges in Mombasa courts. He had also been accused of being behind
the recruitment to al-Shabab of youths in Mombasa and Kwale counties.
27 August 2012: Sheikh Aboud Rogo
Aboud Rogo Mohammed was on US and UN sanctions lists for allegedly
supporting Somalia's al-Shabab militants. The UN Security Council imposed a
travel ban and asset freeze on him, saying he had provided financial,
material, logistical or technical support to al-Shabab. It accused him of
being the "main ideological leader" of Kenya's al-Hijra group, also known as
the Muslim Youth Centre, which is viewed as a close ally of al-Shabab.
He was accused of using the extremist group as a pathway for radicalization
and recruitment of principally Swahili-speaking Africans to carry out
violent activities in Somalia. He was also facing charges of plotting terror
attacks in the East Africa region. He was killed along the Mombasa-Malindi
highway, while driving a vehicle containing his wife and other family
members.
Following the killing, protests erupted in several parts of Mombasa for a
couple of days, resulting in in several people, including a security
officer, being attacked and killed, as radical youths sought revenge.
Several churches were torched, and property destroyed. The sheikh preached
at the controversial Masjid Musa mosque.
29 October 2012: Omar Faraj and Titus Nabiswa
Omar Faraj, 30, a Muslim youth leader, and Titus Nabiswa, 27, a Muslim
convert from western Kenya, died after what is alleged to have been a
shoot-out. Coast deputy CID boss John Gachomo said the police recovered two
grenades in the operation at Mwembe Tanganyika area in Majengo, Mombasa.
Nabiswa, who had been arrested, led Anti-Terror Police officers to his
alleged accomplice Omar Faraj, in Majengo, where it is said police
encountered resistance from the latter, leading to a shoot-out. Nabiswa is
said to have died in crossfire.
27 June 2013: Kassim Omollo
The Anti-Terror Police Unit described Kassim Omollo, who was gunned down in
Bakarani estate, Mombasa, as an al-Shabab trainer, a bomb expert and an
accomplice of both British terror suspect Jermaine Grant and a Kenyan, Faud
Abubakar Manswad, who is believed to be operating from Somalia. Police
reported having recovered two hand grenades, a pistol, a loaded AK- 47
rifle, and chemicals for manufacturing explosives, in the deceased person's
house. They said he was planning a terror attack in Mombasa. Police also
recovered fake Kenyan currency, and chemicals used to print fake banknotes,
as well as hand-written notes outlining jihad teachings.
27 June 2013: Salim Mohammed Nero
Salim Mohammed Nero was allegedly killed in what police described as a
shoot-out between them and Nero in Kiembeni estate, Mombasa, on the same day
Kassim Omollo was killed. According to the police, an AK-47, five magazines,
and 145 rounds of ammunition were recovered from Nero.
3 October 2013: Sheikh Ibrahim Omar Ismail, Gadaffi Mohammed (Shebe), Omar
Aburumesia, Issa Abdalla
Viewed as the immediate predecessor to Sheikh Aboud Rogo, Ibrahim Ismail was
shot by people his friends and fellow clerics believe were government
security personnel. He was driving along the Mombasa-Malindi highway when
gunmen opened fire on their vehicle. Three friends in the vehicle also died
on the spot - Gadaffi Mohammed (also known as Shebe), Omar Aburumesia and
Issa Abdalla.
In mid-July 2013, the National Intelligence Service accused Sheikh Ismail of
activating an al-Shabab cell in Mtopanga estate in Kisauni, Mombasa, and
inviting four newly trained jihadists from Somalia to Mombasa to plot "a
bombing campaign" in Mombasa and Nairobi in revenge for the killing of
Sheikh Aboud Rogo in 2012.
3 December 2013: Faiz Mohammed Rufai
The body of Faiz Mohammed Rufai, a madrassa teacher in Malindi and a close
friend of Ahmed Bakshueni, was found dumped on Mamburui beach in Magarini in
early December. According to the police, he was kidnapped by people
suspected to have been radical Muslim youths in the Ngomeni area, who had
chopped off his head and dumped his body in the Indian Ocean. Rufai is said
to have been working as a double agent - i.e. for a terror group and
security agents. Al-Shabab accused him of betrayal for giving information to
local and international security agencies.
6 December 2013: Sheikh Suleiman Mwayuyu
Sheikh Suleiman Mwayuyu was shot dead when gunmen hijacked a minibus
travelling from Mombasa to Ukunda. According to eyewitnesses, two occupants
in a van trailed the minibus from Mombasa, before blocking it at Tiwi on the
Mombasa-Ukunda road. They ordered everyone to lie down before singling out
the cleric whom they shot in the head and neck at close range. The cleric
worked as a tailor in Msikiti Nuru area of Ukunda.
28 January 2014: Ahmed Abdalla Bakshueni
Three gunmen riding on a motorbike shot dead Ahmed Abdallah Bakshueni, a
youth leader, about 200m from Malindi police station. Bakshueni had just
parked his car in front of his shop when two men pulled up on a motorbike
and shot him three times in the chest before fleeing. Police sources said
Bakshueni could have been on a terrorist hit list because he had been
working closely with them, the FBI, the Anti-Terror Police Unit and the CIA
as an informer.
1 April 2014: Sheikh Makaburi
A prominent leader at the controversial Masjid Musa Mosque, the scene of
frequent unrest in Mombasa, the firebrand cleric in his 50s had just stepped
out of the Shanzu law courts along the Mombasa-Malindi highway (where
several youths from Masjid Musa mosque faced charges of engaging in Jihadist
activities), when he was sprayed with bullets at close range. He had said it
was just a matter of time before he would be assassinated by the Anti-Terror
Police Unit, which he often accused of trailing and threatning him.
A vocal supporter of Osama Bin Laden, Makaburi justified attacks on churches
and described the 2013 attack on the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi
(claimed by al-Shabab) as "100 percent justified". Makaburi was also on a UN
sanctions list. He and British terror suspect Jermaine Grant, are said to
have assumed the leadership of Al-Qaeda and its affiliates in Kenya and East
Africa following the 27 August 2012 killing of his former comrade Sheikh
Aboud Rogo.
10 June 2014: Sheikh Mohammed Idriss
Unknown gunmen shot and killed Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya
(CIPK) chairman Sheikh Mohammed Idris in Likoni, Mombasa, as he left for
morning prayers at a mosque near his home. Idriss was also the chairman of
Sakina Mosque in Mombasa, one of a few mosques in the city that had been at
the centre of a power struggle between its officials and radical youths who
wanted to take it over. Idriss had expressed fears for his life after
radical youths threatened him and other CIPK members. The cleric was a
leading campaigner against radicalization of the youth and jihadist
teachings in mosques in the region. Mombasa CID boss Henry Ondieki said they
suspected Sheikh Idriss was killed by people well known to him.
11 July 2014: Shahid Bhat
He was killed driving from Mombasa's Moi Airport. His son, also in the car,
was not hit in the gunfire. A successful businessman owning a major
transport company, Bhat had earlier in the year been arrested and charged
with financing terror in Coast Province. He had denied the allegation and
was out on bail.
Received on Mon Jul 28 2014 - 18:48:03 EDT