A prominent hardline Muslim cleric in Kenya was shot dead in Mombasa on Tuesday, amid worsening religious tensions in the strategic port city and gateway to east Africa.| His obituary is a particular pleasure to read... |
Makaburi was also on UN sanctions lists and accused of being a "leading facilitator and recruiter of young Kenyan Muslims for violent militant activity in Somalia", and of having "strong ties" with Shebab leaders.
Senior police officer in Mombasa Richard Ngatia confirmed Makaburi had been killed by "unknown assailants", and an AFP reporter in the city saw his bloodied corpse. Makaburi, dressed in white robes, was shot in the chest. Another young man was also shot dead alongside Makaburi.
"One of them is the body of Abubaker Shariff alias Makaburi," Ngatia told reporters, adding that family members had identified the body. "They were waiting for a car to pick them up when people in a passing car shot at them. We don't know who killed them and why. We shall conduct an investigation."
There were angry scenes outside the police station where the body had been taken, and police fired into the air to push back furious supporters of the cleric.
Mohamed Ali, who described himself as a "long-time friend of Makaburi", said he was with the cleric during the shooting, which occurred outside a Mombasa courthouse.
"We were expecting to be picked up outside the court, when we heard sudden gunshots. We all went to the ground," he said.
In an interview with AFP only last month, Makaburi had said he was resigned to being killed: "My life is in danger. They will eventually kill me. They do that," he said.
A prominent leader at the controversial Musa Mosque, a scene of frequent unrest in Mombasa, Makaburi presented himself as a simple man promoting "true Islam",
| ...the most violent kind... |
He also blasted Saudi Arabia as "a Christian country ruled by somebody who pretends to be a Muslim".
The firebrand cleric, who was in his 50s, had praised the suicide commandos who stormed Nairobi's part-Israeli-owned Westgate mall in September, massacring at least 67 people -- among them women and children -- in a four-day siege that was carried out in retaliation for Kenya's intervention in Somalia to fight the Shebab.
"It's our innocents for your innocents. It was justified. As per the Koran, as per the religion of Islam, Westgate was 100-percent justified," Makaburi told AFP.