Rowdy Scenes
Nairobi demonstrations by Islamic radicals contained
Parts of the city of Nairobi this afternoon (Friday, January 15) experienced rowdy scenes, when radicalized Muslims took to the streets after Friday prayers to demonstrate against the government’s decision to deport a radical hatred preacher back home to Jamaica.
The man is, according to Kenyan sources, on an international terrorist watch list and has previous relevant convictions in the UK where he had reportedly called for the murder of members of other religions and was subsequently jailed for several years before also being deported. However, attempts to send him home failed last week, when after reaching the Gambia, his passage to Jamaica via Nigeria was blocked, and he was then returned to Nairobi. He was upon his return held at one of Nairobi’s prisons until his deportation can be arranged again, but latest information indicates that he is now being held at the airport police station. Kenya may charter a plane to send him back to Jamaica.
It was also learned he is a wanted man for his radical hatred preaching and incitement to violence. The radical Islamists demonstrating on Friday are thought to try to exploit this situation for their own ends, mixed with a bagful of other agenda items.
Initial reports from Nairobi, speak of a number of injured and as many as five dead, when first the police and then the General Service Unit, a paramilitary special forces detach, were called in to deal with the demonstrators. It was also learned that private citizens in the area stood up, too, hand-in-hand with the police, to corner and push back the demonstrators, giving a clear signal that the overwhelming majority of Nairobians wants peace and quiet and will simply not tolerate this sort of mischief any longer.
Nairobi is home to many refugees of Somali origin, among them a number of suspected radicals and Islamists sympathetic to al-Shabab and other militias fighting for superiority in Somalia, and it is understood that Kenyan security services are keeping a close eye on them to ensure peace and stability not only in Nairobi but Kenya as a whole.
Sources from within the tourism sector expressed their concern over the development but also assured this correspondent that no tourist visitors had come to harm and that they fully expected government to keep the situation under firm control.
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