Mombasa rioters kill cop

By Standard Team

Muslim leaders were on Tuesday unanimous in condemning the violence in Mombasa which was sparked by the killing of controversial Muslim preacher Sheikh Aboud Rogo and demanded the arrest of arsonists torching churches.

But as the leaders preached peace and sought to reconcile Christians and Muslims following attacks on churches, a police officer was killed and 13 others critically injured on Tuesday after people believed to be Muslim radicals at Mwandoni in Kisauni hurled a grenade into their vehicle.

According to Coast Provincial Police Officer Aggrey Adoli, officers –  who were with prison warders in the ill-fated truck – were responding to a distress call that some youth were planning to attack a church in Kisauni.

Adoli told The Standard that the prison warders had moved in to assist the police officers when they were confronted by the youth who hurled a grenade into the truck, killing the policeman and injuring the rest.

There were also reports that rioters in the militant stronghold of Kisauni had acquired guns and improvised explosives. Exhausted and frustrated, policemen complained that they could not quell the violence because rioters had been emboldened by lack of clear orders from their superiors.

“The burning of churches and causing conflict is against the faith, those responsible must be arrested,” said Muhdhar Khitamy, the chairman of the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims (Supkem) at the Coast region. Christian leaders also condemned the violence and urged Muslim leaders to condemn extremism and restrain their rioting youth.

“Most Christians are shocked by the aftermath of the killing of Sheikh Rogo. We do not know the connection between Rogo’s killing and Christians,” lamented the Reverend Lawrence Dena, vice chairman of Mombasa Churches Forum, warning that if violence directed at churches is not stopped “people will begin to protect themselves.”

Coast PC Samuel Kilele hosted a meeting of Christian, Muslim and Hindu religious leaders in his office on Tuesday to call for peace, as separate meetings of Muslim leaders called for the arrest of rioters and questioned the late Sheikh Rogo’s credibility as a Muslim theologian and authority on Islam. But as they spoke of peace, militants unleashed violence in Majengo, Bondeni, Kibokoni, Tudor and Kisauni areas of Mombasa where a bar, a car and a church were burnt and business premises looted.

Several police officers and civilians were injured in overnight riots that continued on Tuesday and were admitted at Pandya Memorial and the Coast General Hospital with various kinds of injuries inflicted by rocks, stampede or knife machetes.

A Catholic priest, Father Gabriel Dolan, who preaches in Bangladesh slums in Changamwe asked elected leaders to initiate dialogue with the protesting youth in the town to end the violence.

The Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya chairman Mohamed Idriss accused rioting youths of stoking the embers of religious unrest and demanded their arrest. But the orgy of violence continued for the second day with its epicentre being Masjid Musa, the mosque where Sheikh Rogo regularly preached.

Angry youths fought pitched battles with the police in Mombasa’s narrow streets, vowing to avenge the death of the fallen preacher.  They petrol-bombed a bar in Majengo and lobbed petrol boms at police cars in Kisauni where Sheikh Rogo also had radical supporters and also preached.

“These boys have begun again but we are not allowing this mayhem to continue,” added Adoli, referring to the riots in Majengo. Adoli also disclosed that a police officer was taken in for surgery for a grave pelvic injury after being hit by rocks thrown by a mob on Monday evening.

innocent victims

Police sources indicated that a police officer broke an arm on Digo Road on Monday night while battling radical Islamists trying to loot and burn a bank and other institutions.

In Kisauni, youths lit bonfires on streets and attacked policemen with rocks, bottles and petrol bombs in battles throughout the day.

As police continued to teargas protesters, who included youths believed to be aged 15 years and under, three innocent Kenyans lay in bed fighting for their lives at the Coast Provincial General Hospital.

Athman Mwamba, an electrician, had his jaw broken after riotous mob cornered him at Saba Saba intersection on Monday. “He is not in anyway involved with these skirmishes,’’ Kokota Babu, an elder brother to Athman who had visited him at the hospital said.

Thomas Namunje, 30, lay in bed at the same hospital nursing serious head injuries. “I was walking home from work when I was accosted and ransacked by marauding youths who stole everything in my possession before they beat me up senselessly,’’ Namunje said. A groundnuts seller, Rama Nyanje, also suffered head injuries and lost Sh3,000 to youths.

Reports by Philip Mwakio, Ngumbao Kithi and David Ochami