WEDNESDAY, 4.00PM
The violence around Kenya’s Indian Ocean port of Mombasa continued overnight on Tuesday when marauders burnt down a chief’s camp at Waa township and four houses at Ukunda near the Diani holiday resort south of Mombasa.
Among the houses burnt was that of Diani’s Amiri Banda, the imam of the Masjid Jihad mosque, who is currently under police arrest on suspicion of involvement in the violence, which has left 37 people dead since it erupted at Likoni last Wednesday.
However, Mombasa’s north coastal region remained quiet overnight on Wednesday, with no fresh incidents reported. Meanwhile, vigilante gangs armed with bows and arrows have been patrolling areas near Mombasa the north coast resort town of Malindi, where hundreds of vendors’ stalls were burned on Monday night. An early morning radio announcement reported Mombasa authorities have ordered a ban on vigilante operations.
And, while the government and opposition parties blame one another for being behind the attacks, opposition leaders were due to meet Mombasa police on Wednesday to demand the arrest of a ruling party MP alleged to be bankrolling the violence. Rashid Sajjad, a nominated Kenya African National Union (Kanu) member of parliament, was named in the assembly on Tuesday as the man behind the violence, but he has denied the accusations.
Meanwhile, authorities in the city have arrested a key Kanu suspect involved in the violence. Omar Masumbuko, who heads an unregistered Kanu Youth Group in Mombasa, was arrested by police at his house on Tuesday night and detained for questioning after most arrested suspects implicated him in the violence.
On Tuesday, police also rounded up 30 trained ex-servicemen they suspect of having planned and carried out an attack last Wednesday on Likoni police station, where six policemen were killed and more than 30 guns and up to 5 000 rounds of ammunition stolen, triggering the mayhem. At least 44 of some 180 people arrested so far have appeared in court since Monday.