Police arrest man suspected to be behind killing of moderate Muslim clerics
Said Swaleh Said Awadh. He was arrested by the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU) officers in Mandera on Monday March 30, 2015. He is suspected to be involved in the killing of moderate Muslim clerics at the Coast. PHOTO | FRED MUKINDA | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- Security sources said that the man was on his way to join Al-Shabaab in Somalia.
- Swaleh Said has been on a watch list of undercover security agents in Kenya until he was arrested.
- He was arrested by the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU) officers in Mandera on Monday.
- The Directorate of Military Intelligence has increased surveillance and reconnaissance operations on the vast Kenya-Somalia border.
Police have arrested a man in connection with the killing of moderate Muslim clerics at the Coast.
Said Swaleh Said Awadh was arrested by the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU) officers in Mandera on Monday.
Security sources told the Nation that the man was on his way to join Al-Shabaab in Somalia.
He was interrogated over the killing of Sheikh Mohamed Idris.
Sheikh Idris was the chairman of the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya before he was killed in June 2014.
Sheikh Idris was felled after gunmen opened fire close to a mosque near his home.
Before his death, he was at the forefront in the fight against radicalisation of the youth at the Coast.
During the time of his death, Al-Shabaab terrorist group had drawn a line between moderate and radical sheikhs and there were casualties on both sides.
The radicals were interested in taking over mosques in Mombasa while the moderate ones resisted and cooperated with security agencies in carrying out operations to take back the mosques.
ON WATCH LIST
Swaleh Said has been on a watch list of undercover security agents in Kenya until he was arrested.
Besides the killing of Sheikh Idris, four other clerics were killed at the Coast between 2012 and 2014.
The Directorate of Military Intelligence has increased surveillance and reconnaissance operations on the vast Kenya-Somalia border.
At the weekend, police arrested three young women as they tried to sneak into Somalia allegedly to get married to Al-Shabaab fighters.
The women, two Kenyans and a Tanzanian, who are said to be students, were apprehended at El Wak on the Kenya-Somalia border on Sunday and were charged in court the following day.
Two are aged 21 and the other is 19, according to police.
They are the first suspected female jihadists to be arrested in East Africa trying to cross into Somalia.
One is a student at Mount Kenya University in Thika, Kiambu County, another at Burhania Secondary School in Malindi, Kilifi County, and the other is said to be pursuing a degree in medicine at the International University of Africa, Khartoum, police said.
