Kenyan security forces patrol riot-hit Mombasa

Kenyan security forces patrolled the riot-hit streets of Mombasa on Friday as Muslims held the main weekly prayers, with streets calm but police reporting they were ready "for anything".

Kenyan authorities insist security has been restored after days of deadly protests that erupted after the assassination of radical Muslim cleric Aboud Rogo Mohammed on Monday.

"Everything is under control. We have not had any reports of planned protests after the prayers, but we are prepared for anything," regional police chief Aggrey Adoli said.

For two days, angry youths fought running battles with police, looted churches and torched cars, while two grenades were hurled at police trucks in two separate attacks, killing three officers and wounding over a dozen.

"We have not had any incidents since Wednesday night," Red Cross official Sadik Kakai said.

Anti-riot police on Friday had blocked off several areas to vehicles, residents said.

"Streets in the Majengo area have been cut off... There is some kind of curfew going on. There are people who spent the whole of Thursday indoors," said Juma Kijipwe, a trader who owns a phone shop.

Foreign embassies -- including those of Australia, Britain, France and the United States -- have issued travel warnings for Mombasa, where several large tourist resorts are based.

The murdered cleric -- popularly known as Rogo -- was on US and UN sanctions lists for allegedly supporting neighbouring Somalia's Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab militants.

Rogo had fiercely opposed Kenya's invasion of southern Somalia last year to attack Shebab bases. The United States and United Nations had accused him of recruiting and fundraising for the extremist insurgents.

Police also beefed up security in the capital Nairobi, fearing potential demonstrations there, with the extremist Muslim Youth Centre (MYC) that Rogo once led issuing threats of protests.

On Thursday, President Mwai Kibaki flew to Mombasa to open a trade fair, a longstanding engagement, but one also viewed as a government effort to show confidence in security in the city, Kenya's main port and a key tourist hub.

"We must maintain peace, which is the foundation of democracy," Kibaki said. "We must embrace tolerance and co-exist peacefully as one nation."

Rogo was killed in Mombasa when unidentified gunmen opened fire on his vehicle as he was driving with his wife and children, leaving it riddled with bullets.

Human Rights Watch has called for a probe into the killing, noting that it "follows the abductions and deaths earlier this year of several other people charged with recruitment and other offences related to the Shebab".

Rogo's supporters accused the security forces of murdering him, calling his death an "extra-judicial killing". The police reject the claim and have appealed for help in hunting down those responsible.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kenyan-security-forces-patrol-riot-hit-mombasa-092739033.html

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