Kenyan teacher handed 20 years in jail for preaching hate

Samwel Wanjala Wabwile alias Salim Muhamed, a terror suspect charged with radicalising children, at the Mombasa Law Courts yesterday. [Photo/Kelvin Karani]

A court has sentenced an imam to 20 years in prison for propagating extremist ideas and promoting hatred of non-Muslims.

The landmark judgement stunned Samuel Wanjala Wabwile, a former Christian who converted to Islam after expulsion from Maseno University in 2011.

The imam was convicted of promoting radical extremist among his pupils in contravention of Prevention of Terrorism Act of 2012.

Mombasa Principal Magistrate Diana Mochache denounced the imam and former Islamic Religious Education teacher, who police claim was expelled from the university after stabbing a fellow student, describing him as "a wolf in a sheep's skin." who deserved no mercy because "he (had) sold his soul to the devil."

"The accused played with the children's mind and used religion and Tae Kwondo to radicalise them. He is a wolf in a sheep's skin. The accused deserves no mercy.

"He needs intervention for himself. He has already sold his soul to the devil and he was in the process of selling the same to the children. In my view, the accused should be kept away from members of the public for a long time," said the magistrate.

The magistrate painted the suspect who took the Arabic name Salim Muhamed when he converted to Islam, as a devious man of immense intelligence but who converted to Islam with selfish designs of polluting the minds of children/pupils in his care.

He was also accused of perverting the Islamic doctrine, thus inventing a hate message which he tried to impart in children besides teaching them Tae Kwondo to combat non-Muslims.

Wabwile also pleaded for leniency, urging the court to consider that he had a young daughter who depended on him. But the magistrate rejected his plea.

Some lawyers told The Standard that yesterday's conviction, which was made on the first anniversary of the massacre at France's satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, could be the first one for a religious-based hate crime in Kenya's judicial history.