Kenya reinforces security over Mombasa violence, policeman killed

Mombasa, Kenya (PANA) - Violence escalated in Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa a day after the killing of a controversial Muslim cleric linked to past terrorist activities.

A policeman and a civilian were killed after a grenade was hurled near a church in Kisauni on the second day of the mayhem, PANA reported.

Coast Provincial Police Commander, Aggrey Adoli, said Police restraining violent youth from burning a Pentecostal church in the Kisauni, Mombasa, suffered injuries.

Police said 16 people were wounded during the escalation of violence in the region, which has lately become a haven of terrorist attacks and regular grenade attacks.

In the streets of Mombasa, burnt public transport vehicles reflected the memories of the 2007/08 post-election violence. The demonstrators also targeted a petrol station in the city.

The attacks escalated after the Kenyan troops crossed into Somalia in the war against the Al Shabaab.

Police called in reinforcement from the elite anti-riot squad, the General Service Unit (GSU), to beef up their response to the violence that followed the killing of Aboud Rogo, a senior Muslim cleric, who was undergoing trial for a series of attacks in Mombasa.

On Monday, gunmen killed Rogo, a controversial Muslim cleric, who accused the Police of attempting to kidnap him on his numerous journeys to court.

Top Muslim preacher Sheikh Juma Ngao, condemned the violence that appeared to target Christian churches at the coast, saying it was still too soon for the youth to riot and burn churches.

In the latest flare up to the violence, the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA) in Mombasa was burnt on Tuesday.

Muslim clerics said the burning of the churches was not premeditated, but appeared to be a reaction to the death of Rogo, who was killed after gunmen fired several shots, 16 of them hitting his car.

Protestors lit bone fires near the Masjid Musa Mosque in Kisauni while violence escalated.

Police said the scene of the violence was temporarily inaccessible as they sought reinforcement to deal with it.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga had earlier called for calm on Monday after the killing of the cleric.

But international reaction to the violence was swift. The British government issued a travel advisory for the Kenyan coast, a tourist haven. Australia also issued travel advisories to foreign nationals traveling to Kenya.
-0- PANA AO/VAO 28Aug2012