Kenya charges Shebab-linked radical preacher after riots

A radical Kenyan preacher accused by the US of supporting Somalia’s Al-Qaeda linked militants was on Monday charged with inciting violent protests, after he surrendered claiming he feared for his life.

Abubaker Shariff Ahmed handed himself over to a court in the port city of Mombasa after the assassination there last week of fellow Islamist cleric Aboud Rogo Mohammed by unknown gunmen sparked days of deadly rioting.

Ahmed, also known as Makaburi, pled not guilty to charges of encouraging that violence, which saw two days of running battles, with grenades hurled at two police trucks, killing three officers and wounding over a dozen others.

Like Ahmed, the murdered cleric – popularly known as Rogo – was also on United States sanctions lists for allegedly supporting neighbouring Somalia’s extremist Shebab, including by recruiting and fundraising for the group.

Following Rogo’s murder, Ahmed is alleged to have called out from a mosque to supporters to target security officers and to torch churches in Mombasa, Kenya’s main port and a key tourist town. He denies the charges.

Rogo’s supporters accused the security forces of murdering him, calling his death an “extra-judicial killing”. The police reject the claim and have appealed for help in hunting down those responsible.

But Ahmed, speaking to Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper on Monday just before he handed himself in to the authorities, said he feared for his life.