Kenyan cleric deportation causes violent confrontations

The case of the deported Muslim cleric Sheikh Abdullah El Faisal continues to cause widespread anger following claims by protest March organisers that Kenyan police have used the demonstration as a witch hunt exercise with hundreds arrested and interrogated.

Kenyan police have been attempting to try to identify those with terrorist links after violent clashes marred the first protest rally organised for January 16th. In that incident two people died and six officers were injured with police making some 400 arrests. The central business district of Nairobi was the scene of confrontations and hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage was reported as the demonstration turned ugly.

Local shop traders joined in support of Kenyan police, as one stage hurling rocks back at the madding crowd. Security personnel in full riot gear soon joined the fray and searched through the mainly Somali residential area of Eastleigh which is known to locals as Little Mogadishu. Officers were searching for people with documented ties to the Al-Shabaab group – a Somali organisation which is seeking the overthrow on the government inside the northern neighbour of Kenya.

Up to sixteen members of the Transitional Federal Government from Somalia were detained by Kenyan police forces. Nairobi police chiefs have vowed to weed out the militant element inside the city which has been accused of trying to destroy both countries from within.

Protest March organisers have claimed that Kenyan authorities have been systematically targeting Muslim neighbourhoods and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) has expressed concerns that the police raids may be in breach of civil liberties whereby a specific faith cannot be targeted.