Standard Digital News
Updated Friday, October 4th 2013 at 23:36 GMT +3 THE STANDARD
A preacher shot in the dead of the night as he made his way from a mosque sparks widespread riots in Mombasa in which a church is set on fire in retaliation; hundreds of kilometers away, a graduation ceremony is called off after a terror attack warning on a Catholic University campus.
These were just some of the depressing reports Kenyans woke up to yesterday, a reminder that the aftermath of the terrorist massacre carried out at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi two weeks ago is far from over.
In Mombasa, the fingers will be pointed at government in whatever form it is imagined to have appeared on Thursday night to snuff out the life of an Islamic preacher who had just left a mosque better known for the radical teachings of another slain cleric Aboud Rogo.
The anger was palpable following the death of Ibrahim Omar, who was seen as Rogo’s successor, as he preached at the same mosque and was given the nickname Rogo.
Rowdy Muslim youths, who would hear nothing of the Mombasa County police chief’s denials of any police involvement in the death of Ibrahim Omar “Rogo” and three others, immediately went on an orgy of violence and set on fire the local Salvation Army church.
Whatever the case, Mombasa police have their work cut out to deal with the fall-out from yet another gruesome killing.
The Mombasa killings and the violent aftermath — not least the burning of a church there — are music to the ears of al-Shabaab and those who subscribe to their cause of setting Kenyan against Kenyan.
For years now, the radical Islamic group has sought to set Christians against Muslims in a well-orchestrated campaign whose central pillar was attacks on Sunday congregants. On other occasions, the odd grenade was hurled at a church or Sunday school. Such attacks were carried out in Nairobi and in Garissa notably, resulting in numerous deaths and scores of injuries.
But al-Shabaab’s overall aim of causing religious recriminations remained elusive. The coming together of all faiths in the aftermath of the Westgate massacre must have been all the more frustrating for the strategists that have so far failed at attempts to trigger inter-religious conflict.
Such tactics were in evidence elsewhere at Limuru, near Nairobi, the venue for the university graduation that never was.
People gathered for St Paul University’s annual ceremony — including the Education Cabinet Secretary — were forced to leave after a caller issued a terrorist attack warning.
Whether the warning was a hoax or not remains unclear. But fingers there will be pointed in the direction of al-Shabaab and its sympathisers for disrupting a ceremony that had attracted thousands on campus.
The sight of smoke rising from a church yesterday was a sure sign that there is more work to be done by those political and religious leaders who have worked so hard to maintain a united front against Al Shabaab’s most disruptive divide and rule tactics.
So too was the sight of graduands’ pride and joy replaced by terror and apprehension.
This is the time for Muslim, Christian and other religious leaders in Mombasa and beyond to demonstrate their leadership in the face of an attack that — whether by design or not — will test relations between communities living side by side.
Political leaders too must come out strongly not only to condemn the killings but to bring down emotions and to channel the anger in non-destructive ways.
But clearly, it will take more than the political and religious leaders to steady the ship through the stormy seas in which the Kenyan ship has sailed into these past few weeks.
As it became apparent since the Westgate attack, those we hold to account for our safety and security can only do so much.
No threat is great enough if every community and neighbourhood remains united.
No comments:
Post a Comment