Likoni church torched amid rising tension

Residents peep inside the burnt church in Likoni, Friday. [PHOTO: Gedion MAUNDU/STANDARD]

By Philip Mwakio and Benard Sanga

Mombasa, Kenya: An evangelical church was torched by unknown assailants in volatile Likoni, Mombasa on Christmas Eve. An attempt to burn a second church 200 metres away failed when the petrol bomb lobbed into the compound failed to ignite.

Immediate suspicion has fallen on religious fanatics who resent the presence of churches in their midst or separatists who covet the land on which the church is erected.

This is despite intelligence reports linking the attack on the churches to Islamist radicals that recently attacked tourists with a hand grenade early this month.

Police were yesterday eager to characterise the arson as a normal incident arising from a land dispute.

Significantly, the arson was followed by the fatal shooting of an Islamic schoolteacher Said Salim Mwasalim in Mukaha location of Kwale County on Christmas Day.

Connected events

Police have not said if the two events are connected. On Christmas Day police said investigations had been launched to determine who was behind the attack and torching of Christ’s Outreach Church located in Mweza area, Mtongwe, Likoni Constituency.

As police promised security, faithful were pondering over rising insecurity and xenophobia. Despite the threat, there was no police on site to guard the Mombasa Voice of Salvation and Healing Church, which was attacked but did not burn when the petrol device failed to ignite.

The Tuesday attack on the Likoni churches is the third on Christian facilities this year following the October burning of the Salvation Army church in Majengo, Mombasa, which was blamed on radical Muslim youth incensed by the killing of Sheikh Ibrahim Amur.

In the same month an attempt was made to burn the Baptist Church in Kisauni followed by the killing of two pastors in Kisauni and Kilifi.

 In the same period several Muslim priests and activists were also killed.

And early this month a text message suspected to have been leaked from the Kenyan intelligence warned that Jihadists led by a Mr Hassan Suleiman Mwayuyu were planning an arson campaign against churches in Likoni, Kisauni, Changamwe and Kwale.

Suspected State agents near Diani gunned down Hassan, who had been on two government terrorist lists, early December. Security sources have linked Mwasalim to Mwayuyu but the former’s kin deny any such connection. On Wednesday, Likoni OCPD Robert Mureithi claimed a long running land dispute pitting the church members against local people could have caused the torching of the church.

Independent sources at the scene, however, indicate that local extremist opponents of the evangelical church resent its presence in their midst accusing its adherents of “making noise” during night time gatherings.

The church was preparing for a nightlong vigil to usher in Christmas but abandoned the idea after receiving threats by people who portrayed themselves as separatists.

Pastor John Kinuthia, 47, who presides at the Christ Outreach Church said he received a call early in the morning of Christmas day that his church building had been burnt. Prior to the burning of the church, graffiti depicting the separatist, Mombasa Republic Council had been smeared on the church’s main door, according to witnesses.

“I personally rushed to the church after getting word from one of my congregants and what I saw baffled me. The entire church roof, which was v thatched, had caved in and was completely burnt,’’ he said. Pastor Kinuthia said following the attack on the church, they suspended holding Christmas Day mass.

And speaking on the attack, Mweza Nyumba Kumi village official Shaban Ali Salim alias Laban said Muslims and Christians had been co-existing peacefully with the church members over a period of time.

“This incident has caught us by utter surprise. We are fully cooperating with government agencies over this matter,’’ Shaban told The Standard On Saturday at the scene of the burnt out church on Christmas day.

By yesterday no suspect had been arrested and police appeared to have deployed no additional security in the chronically insecure area.

An intelligence official told The Standard On Saturday yesterday the attackers are most likely the same that tried to kill two British tourists in an unsuccessful grenade attack around the Likoni ferry crossing early December.

An active Al-Shabaab cell and militant separatists have created a deadly mix, according to police and intelligence sources.