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Police officers battle riotous
youth at Majengo, Mombasa August 28, 2012.
Two policemen were feared dead
after youth protesting the killing of fiery
preacher Aboud Rogo hurled a
grenade at a contingent of the officers in Kisauni.
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A prison warder was killed and 14
other security officers injured as the violence triggered by the killing of
Al-Shabaab suspect Aboud Rogo continued for the second day Tuesday.
The riots spread across Mombasa town
with mayhem reported in Mwandoni, Bakarani and Bamburi, all in Kisauni, and in
Majengo and King’orani areas on the island.
The warder and 13 of his colleagues
were in a vehicle that was attacked with a grenade as they rushed in to quell
the riots.
The other officers, from the General
Service Unit, were injured in battles at Majengo and King’orani.
On Tuesday, a high level team
comprising officers from the government and independent agencies was set up to
investigate the killing of Sheikh Rogo.
The Director of Public Prosecutions,
Mr Keriako Tobiko, appointed assistant deputy DPP Jacob Ondari to coordinate
the team that includes representatives from the Independent Police Oversight
Authority, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, the Law Society of
Kenya, the Commission on Administration of Justice and the police. (READ: DPP Tobiko orders joint probe
into Rogo killing)
As the riots in Mombasa continued,
leaders across the political divide called for calm.
They included Prime Minister Raila
Odinga, Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi and Mvita MP Najib Balala. In
Parliament, MPs demanded that details of the killing of Sheikh Rogo be revealed
to the public.
They also want a report on why the
police had not arrested any culprits despite the crime having been committed in
“broad daylight”.
Sheikh Rogo had been named by the
United Nations and United States as Al-Shabaab’s chief agent in Kenya, recruiting
fighters for the Somali militant group and raising funds.
Eleven of the injured security
officers were treated at Jocham Hospital. Two others were referred to Coast
General Hospital where the body of the one who was killed was also taken.
The policemen were in a contingent
heading to counter marauding youths who had set ablaze Kisauni Presbyterian
Church. But as they approached the church compound at Mwandoni, the gang
confronted them and a gun-fight ensued.
It is during the fight that one of the
rioters hurled a grenade at the police vehicle. A police officer who talked to
the Nation at
Jocham Hospital said: “One officer is dead, while two are at Coast General
Hospital. The rest of the injured are here.”
A witness said: “I saw the police
vehicle being hit by the grenade. Two police officers fell down with blood all
over.”
Burning tyres
Tension reigned in Kisauni, which was
virtually inaccessible after the rioters barricaded the main road using burning
tyres.
A lorry-load of General Service Unit
officers later sent to the area had to use a detour through Mishomoroni in a
bid to access Mwandoni which was the epicentre of Tuesday’s clashes.
Mr Sadique Kakai, Kenya Red Cross
officer in charge of disaster in the Coast region described the situation as “really
bad”.
“We are even unable to access the
hard-hit areas to help those who are injured. The rioters are even turning
against us,” he told the Nation
by phone.
The battles had earlier been confined
to the town, but spread to residential estates after police secured the town
centre.
The chaos intensified even as Coast
provincial commissioner Samuel Kilele warned that the security forces would
deal decisively with its perpetrators.
Mr Kilele, speaking after meeting
inter-faith council of preachers in his office, said those causing riots were
criminals.
“Criminal gangs are taking advantage
of this violence to cause mayhem, damage property and steal from people,” he
said, adding that stringent measures had been put in place to ensure normality
returned to the island and elsewhere.
The violence, he said, might adversely
affect the Mombasa International Agricultural Society of Kenya show, which
starts on Wednesday.
Provincial police boss Aggrey Adoli
said a team of senior officers from the CID had been sent to Mombasa to assist
in investigating the Rogo murder.
Police, he said, had arrested a number
of people who they were sorting out based on evidence at hand. He said officers
would use ‘‘minimal” force to quell the chaos.
Rogue youths
“We cannot allow rogue youths to spoil
the party for everybody just because they are mourning,” he said. To contain
the current situation, Mr Adoli said more policemen had been sent to the
affected areas.
Police arrested 13 youths suspected to
have been involved in the chaos around Mwembe Tanganyika and Majengo ya Musa
estates.
The officers were around the two
estates to contain the youths who lit tyres on Shariff Nassir Road, disrupting
transport around Majengo and King’orani.
Police also cordoned off the Mombasa
Pentecostal Church among other churches within Mombasa Island after receiving
information that some youths were planning to burn them down.
Reports by Bozo Jenje, Mwakera
Mwajefa, Galgalo Bocha, Winnie Atieno, Anthony Kitimo and Mark Agutu
Daily Nation
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