The Standard Group Plc is a multi-media organization with investments in media platforms spanning newspaper print operations, television, radio broadcasting, digital and online services. The Standard Group is recognized as a leading multi-media house in Kenya with a key influence in matters of national and international interest.

Standard Group Plc HQ Office,
The Standard Group Center,Mombasa Road.
P.O Box 30080-00100,Nairobi, Kenya.
Telephone number: 0203222111, 0719012111
Email: [email protected]

NEWS & CURRENT AFFAIRS

The Nairobian

New twist as Muslim preacher Faisal brought back to Kenya

Business

By The Standard Business | Jan 11, 2010

By Cyrus Ombati

The saga surrounding controversial Jamaican Muslim cleric Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal took a new twist after he was deported back from Nigeria.

The cleric was transiting through Nigeria to the Gambia where he would have been put on an onward flight to his country Jamaica.

Al-Faisal was deported on Thursday morning to Gambia through Nigeria but on reaching Lagos, a flight that was supposed to fly him to Banjul declined to take him.

His lawyer in Nairobi Mbugua Mureithi who was on Sunday accompanied by Muslim human rights leaders said he was deported back to Kenya on Saturday morning.

Keep Reading business

Al-Faisal spoke to the leaders on the phone from Industrial Area Prisons remand on Sunday evening.

Being held

Commissioner of Prisons Isaiah Osugo said Al-Faisal was being held in one of the prisons facilities and explained that the Minister of Immigration has powers to commute to jail anyone who has been denied entry to any country, like the case of Faisal.

Other sources said Al-Faisal was taken to Industrial Area on Saturday evening after Immigration Minister Otieno Kajwang’ ordered so.

Al-Faisal confirmed he had agreed to go to Gambia where he was supposed to make his way to Jamaica. He said he had been questioned by immigration and police officers regarding his presence in Kenya.

Kajwang’ told the media last Thursday that Al-Faisal had been deported to Gambia. "As I speak now he is in Banjul. He requested to be taken there and after authorities in Gambia agreed to receive him we did what was required," said Kajwang’.

The minister said Kenya decided to arrest and deport Al-Faisal after his name appeared on the international terror watch list. It was after negotiations that Kenya Airways agreed to fly him to Nigeria.

Al-Faisal who has called for Americans, Hindus and Jews to be killed, traveled from Nigeria through Angola, Malawi, Swaziland, Mozambique, and Tanzania by road before coming to Kenya. He served four years in Britain for inciting murder and stirring racial hatred.