Extremist to hang for killing moderate Sheikh

A radical Islamist has been sentenced to death for the murder of former Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya (CIPK) chairman Sheikh Mohamed Idris.

The High Court in Mombasa, yesterday ruled that Mohamed Sudi Said, whom the police have also linked to seven other murders at the Coast, was an extremist with links to a radical mosque in Mombasa and among the group that evicted Idris from preaching there.

Justice Martin Muya also ruled that the conspiracy to kill Sheikh Idris was fuelled by religious hate and extremism.

“The sheikh was a Muslim preacher of moderate persuasion who did not get well with radicalised youth [and] as such the person who fired the gun whose bullet snuffed the life out of him must have had intent to cause his death. I find the prosecution has proved its case beyond reasonable doubt. The accused is therefore to suffer the death sentence,” Muya ruled.

The judge also ruled that although there was no eyewitness to the murder, circumstantial evidence adduced by the state had adequately linked Sudi to the murder. A gun found on the convict was determined to be the one that fired the bullet that killed Sheikh Idris.

Muya dismissed the testimony of Sudi’s two wives, who had testified that he was in one of his houses in Likoni at the time of the murder on June 10, 2014.

“The firearm examiner determined that the Ceska pistol which was recovered from the suspect was used to fire the bullet which killed Sheikh Idris,” said Justice Muya, who concluded that evidence had demonstrated that Sudi was enticed by malice to kill Sheikh Idris.   

Idris was killed as he prepared to enter a mosque in Manyatta area of Likoni in Mombasa. His murder was blamed on radical Islamists opposed to his moderate policies and preaching. He was rushed almost lifeless to Pandya Hospital on Mombasa island where doctors pronounced him dead.

An autopsy determined that several bullets hit him in the left leg, head and upper side of the abdomen.

Idris was ousted from the post of Imam of Sakina mosque in Mombasa early December 2013 by radical supporters of Sheikh Sharif Abubakar alias Makaburi. He immediately went into hiding after receiving death threats.

Makaburi himself was assassinated by suspected state agents on April 1, 2014 as he stepped out of court after bailing out radical youths arrested after a raid on the controversial Musa mosque in Majengo, Mombasa, on February 2, 2014.

Radical links

Following a series of raids on Musa and Sakina mosques, and suspicion over radical links in other mosques like Liwatoni in Ganjoni and Umar ibn Khattab, Swafaa and Minaa in Kisauni and the murder of Makaburi, most moderate Muslim imams went into hiding after being ousted from mosques by extremists.

Within this period, several other imams and intelligence officers were also killed in Mombasa and Malindi.

Sheikh Idris had predicted his own death at the hand of radicals who despised CIPK for its alleged close ties to the Jubilee government, police and the US government and support for moderation and religious co-existence ties.

Extremists were blamed for these killings and gun attacks on churches and plots against Western interests.

Sudi, also known by his alias Abu Osama, was arrested along Likoni-Ukunda road after being trailed for days. The police claimed they had received intelligence that he was set to return a gun hired from a criminal within Likoni.

Police pounced on him as he rode a bicycle on which he was carrying a polythene bag which allegedly yielded the Ceska pistol, four bullets and 50 compact discs with extremist teaching.

He reportedly did not resist arrest and police say they took him to his house where they recovered a grenade, four bomb detonators, a quarter kilogramme of hashish and 58 discs with incendiary material.

Ballistic tests, according to the prosecution, disclosed the pistol had been used in seven other murders in Kisauni, Kiembeni and Likoni in Mombasa and Kwale and Malindi.

Sudi was linked to a church attack in Likoni where several faithful were killed on March 19, 2014. He was charged with murder and illegal gun possession, charges he denied saying the state had framed him and planted the gun to implicate him.

In his defence, Sudi requested the admission of Closed Circuit Television CCTV footage from two cargo stations in Mombasa in a bid to demonstrate that he was actually on duty on Mombasa island at the time he allegedly killed the preacher. The cargo stations refused to present the footage and the court did not compel them to do so.

Sudi displayed no emotion when the sentence was read.