Times Online

MOMBASA, Kenya, Sept 2 (Reuters) - The assassination of a Muslim cleric in Kenya's port of Mombasa and deadly riots that followed have exposed deep social, political and sectarian divides that could unleash more violence ahead of a presidential election next year.
Unidentified gunmen sprayed bullets into the car of Aboud Rogo on Monday, killing a man accused by both the Kenyan government and the United States of helping al Qaeda-linked Islamist militants in Somalia.
Rogo's supporters fought running street battles with the security forces in the hours after his death, and sporadic violence continued over the following days. Churches were torched and two grenades were thrown at police vehicles. At least five people have been killed.
 The government says the violence was organised by Kenya's “enemies” and blames Muslim radicals - including the slain cleric - for supporting al-Shabaab, the Islamists that Kenya's military has been battling since invading Somalia last year.
Muslims, who predominate in many neighbourhoods of Kenya's second largest city, blame the authorities for the cleric's killing, and say it is part of a campaign against their community and faith.
They say the spontaneous outpouring of fury was a natural response, both to the assassination and to decades of political and economic marginalisation in an area where shanty towns cluster in squalor alongside luxurious white sand beach resorts.
“Incited? I don't need to be incited to riot when I have eyes to see my sheikh has been killed by the government,” said Otieno Ramadhan, 25, a Muslim convert who sells charcoal.
“We youth from the coast don't have anything to show, no jobs - yet other people get employed daily at the port. All they have brought us here is drugs to kill us slowly,” he added. “I will riot. They can shoot us dead if they wish.”
“THE POLICE ARE KILLERS”
Ahmed Yahya, a 27-year-old butcher, recalled how the sensation of rage coursed through him when the news of the cleric's killing reached the mosque where he was praying in Mombasa's rundown Kisauni district.
He and other worshippers poured into the streets. The crowd chanted “the police are killers”.
“Rogo was a staunch Muslim, that is what I admired most about him: his firm and bold stands on matters of Islam. But, you see, to be a firm Muslim doesn't make you a terrorist,” Yahya said, hacking at a slab of meat in his shop.
Rogo had built up a loyal base of supporters in parts of Mombasa, with many of his sermons posted online and on social media. The riots broke out as word of the killing spread through Kisauni and another neighbourhood, Majengo, Rogo's own backyard.
“The sheikh challenged us to be real Muslims, by word and deed, ready to do anything to defend our religion, even die,” said Yahya.
Muslims make up barely 11% of the population of Kenya but were long the predominant religious group along the coast, where the local Swahili culture was influenced for centuries by Indian Ocean trade links with the Middle East.
Coastal Swahili Muslims complain that they have lost land and jobs to settlers from inland, while seeing little of the wealth generated by tourism on their beaches and traffic at their port, which serves most of east and central Africa.
“The Kenyan coast faces historical injustices such as limited job opportunities, and this has led people to believe this government is against Islam,” said Phyllis Muema, who runs a community group operating programmes for unemployed youth.
In Mombasa's Kisauni and Majengo districts, youths idle in the rubbish-strewn streets lined by dilapidated housing and open gutters. Unemployment is rampant; so is drug addiction.
An outlawed coastal group, the Mombasa Republican Council (MRC), wants to secede from Kenya. It has threatened to stage unrest if its demands for independence are not met by next year's presidential election. The group has distanced itself from the violence that
followed Rogo's assassination and denies government assertions that it is linked to Islamic radicalism or support for Shabaab.
“We are not involved with these issues. It is not our arrangement, it is not our project,” MRC Secretary-General Randu Nzai said.
“RELIGIOUS ANIMOSITY”
Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga said it was clear the violent reaction to Rogo's killing was organised. He blamed the country's enemies for seeking to “create religious animosity”.
“Why deliberately attack churches? That must be part of an organised reaction. Where did the grenades come from? It confirms our worst fears that there is a serious underground organisation conducting this,” Odinga said this week.
A senior government official told Reuters police were hunting for three Muslim clerics allied to Rogo, and suspected of fanning the unrest. He declined to disclose their identities.