Kenyan police fired shots and tear gas as they fought running battles in downtown Nairobi on Friday with Muslim demonstrators demanding the release of a radical Jamaican cleric.
At least one police officer and four demonstrators were injured in the violence in the central business district which erupted as police tried to disperse crowds gathered after Friday prayers, according to AFP reporters on the scene.
Some protesters hurled stones at the police shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest) and waving banners that read “Release Al Faisal, he is innocent.”
Abdullah al-Faisal, who is on a global terror watchlist and served four years in a British jail for inciting racial hatred, has been in Kenyan custody since last week after the authorities tried and failed to deport him.
Anti-riot police charged at the dozens of youths, surrounded the Jamiah mosque in the city centre and used water cannons to repel them as an ambulance picked up injured people, including some reporters.
“War against Muslims is intolerable,” read one placard, while a protester waved a black flag with Arabic inscription and another brandished Osama bin Laden’s portrait.
Crowds of by-standers also joined the chaos, throwing rocks and calling the Muslims, many of them of Somali descent, foreigners and chanting “Kenya yetu,” Swahili for “Kenya is ours,” or “Ua,” Swahili for “kill” as the police charged.
The riot highlighted longstanding grievances by Kenya’s minority Muslims of being unfairly targeted by security forces and perceived neglect by previous regimes in appointment to government posts.
Since the setting up of the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit in 2003, Muslim rights groups have complained of repeated police harassment, arbitrary arrests and rendition of Muslims suspected of terrorism.
Faisal’s lawyers and rights groups have complained that the cleric is being held without charge.
The December 31 arrest of Faisal, who police and immigration officials said violated immigration regulations by preaching, is the latest in a string of protests by the Muslims.
Faisal, 45, was arrested in Britain in 2003 after spending years urging his audiences to kill Jews, Hindus and Westerners.
Kenya’s attempts to deport the cleric, first to Tanzania and then to Gambia have failed due to the refusal by authorities and airlines to grant him entry.