Muslim cleric Sheikh Ibrahim Rogo gunned down in Kenya

Nairobi. Sheikh Ibrahim Rogo, the successor to a controversial Muslim cleric killed last year, was Thursday night together with three others gunned down by unknown assailants in the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa.

Friday, October 04, 2013

Nairobi. Sheikh Ibrahim Rogo, the successor to a controversial Muslim cleric killed last year, was Thursday night together with three others gunned down by unknown assailants in the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa.Mr Rogo was heading home from a mosque where he had been preaching when their vehicle was sprayed with bullets, killing four of its five occupants.He succeeded the fiery Sheikh Aboud Rogo, who was killed in similar circumstances in August last year, leading to days of deadly riots in Mombasa. Aboud had been linked to Somali extremist group Al-Shabaab, which saw him placed on a UN sanctions list.The killing of Sheikh Ibrahim Rogo took place less than a kilometre from the Bamburi police station.The others in the vehicle were identified as Gadaffi Mohammed, a carpenter, Issa Abdalla, his brother in law and the driver, and a Mr Omar Abu Rumeisa.One passenger, Salim Aboud, survived the attack by playing dead.Salim Aboud said they were heading home in their Toyota van when people on foot started shooting at their car until it veered off the road."We have finished them,” Mr Salim Aboud heard them say as he pretended to be dead. The assailants are said to have sped-off in a saloon car.Muslim leaders including controversial Sheikh Abubakar Sheriff alias Makaburi who arrived at the scene later pointed an accusing finger at the Anti Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU)."The ATPU were here, why have they run away? What are we going to do next and why are they killing us? We have not killed any one but the police are killing innocent Muslims,” said Mr Makaburi."This actions are being led by Americans and Israelis, Sheikh Ibrahim was not at Westgate during the attack. Western governments do not want Muslims to talk about Jihad. It is part and parcel of Islam, kill us all,” he said.An attack by Al-Shabaab militants on the popular Nairobi shopping centre of Westgate led to a four-day dramatic siege that led to the deaths of at least 67 people.