Human Rights Watch calls for probe into Makaburi’s killing
The late Sheikh Abubaker Shariff Ahmed alias Makaburi. PHOTO | FILE NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- Makaburi, who was the chief cleric of the Masjid Musa mosque in Mombasa was gunned down on Tuesday
- Makaburi had complained of receiving threats but had declined to seek police protection
- In August 2012, Sheikh Aboud Rogo, then the chief cleric at Masjid Musa mosque, was shot and killed in Bamburi
The killing of fiery Muslim cleric Abubakar Shariff alias Makaburi should be promptly investigated by the Kenyan authorities, a regional human rights body said Friday.
In a press release, Human Rights Watch deputy Africa director, Ms Leslie Lefkow said: “Kenyan authorities need to react quickly to this shocking killing of a Muslim cleric...The killers of all three clerics in Mombasa need to be brought to justice.”
Makaburi, who was the chief cleric of the Masjid Musa mosque in Mombasa was gunned down on Tuesday around 6.30 pm by unknown assailants and becomes the third high-profile Muslim cleric to be killed in the Bamburi area in the past two years.
Unidentified assailants shot and killed Makaburi at the law courts inside the Shimo La Tewa prison compound.
He was awaiting a court decision on his application to ease his bail conditions on charges of terrorist activity and incitement.
Makaburi had complained of receiving threats but had declined to seek police protection, saying that he believed it was the police who were threatening to kill him.
Ms Lefkow said Friday: “Gunning down clerics in the streets is only making a bad situation worse...
“The authorities need to put an end to this cycle of violence and they should start by finding out who is behind these killings and prosecuting them.”
According to Human Rights Watch, Makaburi had in October 2013 told the lobby that he was being trailed by people he was confident were police officers. “I know they are going to kill me,” he said at that time. “The police have told me as much to my face. But if they have evidence against me, why can’t they just take me to court?”
The Human Rights group claims that attacks on clerics and other Muslims in Mombasa appear to be linked to accusations by authorities that they were involved in terrorist activities. Makaburi was under United Nations sanctions for allegedly supporting terrorism.
In August 2012, Sheikh Aboud Rogo, then the chief cleric at Masjid Musa mosque, was shot and killed in Bamburi.
The killing of Rogo, who faced charges of weapons possession and illegal recruitment of youth to the Somali Islamist group al-Shabaab, sparked riots.
In October 2013, Sheikh Ibrahim Omar, who replaced Rogo at Masjid Musa, was gunned down near the same place. Before those killings, Kenyan human rights groups based on the coast had reported a series of killings and abductions of people the police claimed were terrorists or had links to al-Shabaab.
According to Human Rights Watch, the police have failed to investigate these killings and recalled that in October, Mombasa police had told the rights group that investigations into the two killings of imams were “blocked because the clerics’ bodies had been cremated within hours of their being shot”. The police have since confirmed that they have not taken further action.
In December, a member of Kenya’s Anti-Terrorism Police Unit told the BBC that the unit was “gunning down” terrorism suspects. “The justice system in Kenya is not favourable to the work of the police,” he said. “So we opt to eliminate them. We identify you, we gun you down in front of your family, and we begin with the leaders.”
In the past two years there have been over 30 grenade and gun attacks in Mombasa, Nairobi, Garissa, and Mandera. Apart from the Westgate mall attack on September 21, in which 67 people died, and one attack in Mandera, no group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The most recent attacks occurred on Monday night where six people were killed in Nairobi’s Eastleigh estate. The authorities said later that day that they had arrested 657 people following that attack.
