Imam’s death shocks Kenya Muslims

Threatening revival of angry Muslim protests, a prominent Kenyan Muslim scholar has been shot dead in Mombasa on Tuesday, April 1, in the latest attack targeting Muslim imams on the Kenyan coast.

“Our brother Abubakar Shariff Makaburi has left us. He is dead,” a preacher at a mosque in Kisauni, a Muslim-dominated area near Mombasa, said through a loudspeaker on Tuesday night, Reuters reported.
Makaburi, dressed in white robes, was killed as he left a court compound about 15 km north of the port city of Mombasa, police chief for Kisauni area Richard Ngtia told journalists.
Waiting to be picked up after attending a court hearing with another young man, another vehicle approached and the men were sprayed with bullets killing both men, Ngtia added.
After news of Makaburi’s death, angry youth appeared outside the police station where the body had been taken. Police fired into the air to push back furious supporters of the scholar.
Mohamed Ali, who described himself as a “long-time friend of Makaburi”, said he was with the scholar during the shooting, which occurred outside a Mombasa courthouse.
“We were expecting to be picked up outside the court, when we heard sudden gunshots. We all went to the ground,” he said.
After Makaburi’s death, earlier interviews with the fallen prominent scholar showed that he expected his death at the hands of Kenyan security forces.
In another interview with AFP only last month, Makaburi had said he was resigned to being killed.
Makaburi’s death could stir fresh unrest in the coastal area where most of Kenya’s Muslims live.
Last October, Muslim scholar Ibrahim “Rogo” Omar was gunned down in Mombasa.
His killing was similar to that of imam, Aboud Rogo Mohammed, who was killed in August 2012.