Terror suspect surrenders to court over Mombasa riots

By Willis Oketch

Terror suspect Sheikh Said Abubakar Ahmed turned up at the Mombasa Law Courts on Monday morning to plead to charges related to last week’s deadly riots sparked by the August 27 killing of his ally Sheikh Aboud Rogo.

At the same time a team of investigators probing the late Sheikh Rogo's killing has arrived in Mombasa.

According to one of its members Jacob Ondari who is a state counsel in Mombasa the team arrived in Mombasa on Sunday and will study the findings recorded so far by local police. He said the team will guide local police in their investigation.

Ondari asked witnesses to record statements with the team which is sitting on the 9th floor of the NSSF Building in Mombasa, if they are afraid of meeting police. The team is expected to visit the scene where Sheikh Rogo was killed in Mombasa.

Sheikh Abubakar has been in hiding following Sheikh Rogo’s burial after police obtained a warrant of arrest seeking to charge him for inciting the deadly riots in which three security officers were killed, four others injured and churches burnt in an orgy of gun, grenade and arson attacks.

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A civilian was also killed by rampaging mobs in the violence that tarnished the reputation of the coastal city of Mombasa.

On Wednesday he turned up in court with his lawyer Mureithi Mbugua and told journalists that he is afraid for his life following Rogo’s killing.

Lawyer Mureithi is expected to ask the court to lift the warrant and plead with the court to grant bail to the suspect.

Abubakar who is also known as Makaburi was co –accused on terror and weapons charges in Nairobi alongside the late Sheikh Rogo and early last month they claimed some people tried to kidnap them in the country’s capital city.

In July the late Sheikh Rogo and terror suspect Awadh Omar were placed on a US sanction’s list accused of links with the radical Al Shabaab movement of Somalia.