Firebrand cleric set to stay in Kenyan jail

A radical Jamaican-born Muslim cleric whose teachings influenced one of the 2005 London transport system bombers will stay in a Kenyan prison until authorities find a way to send him home, Kenya’s immigration minister said.

Otieno Kajwang said Sheik Abdullah el-Faisal was jailed because he is a threat to the security of the country.

Mr Kajwang said he issued the order that El-Faisal be held in jail but declined to say for how long. Kenyan law allows police to hold suspects for 24 hours without charging them.

Britain said that El-Faisal’s teachings heavily influenced one of the men who carried out the London bombings that killed 52 innocent people.

The Jamaican-born cleric has called for Americans, Hindus and Jews to be killed.

“We are, as a country, still of the opinion that this gentleman is not safe for Kenya,” Mr Kajwang told reporters. “We are in a very difficult situation which we must tackle but in the interest of the country we will not release him until we send him home.”

Attempts to deport El-Faisal last Thursday failed because he was denied a transit visa when he arrived in Nigeria en route to Gambia, which had agreed to host him. El-Faisal was flown back to Kenya on Sunday morning.

Mr Kajwang said by the time el-Faisal got to Nigeria, Gambian authorities had also refused to grant him entry because of the “bad publicity” surrounding his deportation.

Britain, South Africa, Tanzania and the US have declined to grant El-Faisal a transit visa that would allow him to connect to flights to Jamaica.

El-Faisal served four years in a British jail for inciting murder and stirring racial hatred by urging followers to kill Americans, Hindus and Jews. He once led a London mosque attended by convicted terrorists.

Human rights activists protested el-Faisal’s imprisonment saying that he was being held in jail without trial.

Al-Amin Kimathi, the coordinator of the Muslim Human Rights Forum, asked the government to release el-Faisal to the custody of the Muslim community in the country until they make proper arrangements to deport him.

He said El-Faisal’s detention is proof of discrimination against Muslims in Kenya.

He said El-Faisal had not committed any offence in Kenya and should not be imprisoned.

Mr Kimathi said El-Faisal has requested to be taken to Geneva. Mr Kimathi said that from Geneva El-Faisal can take a connecting flight to Jamaica.

El-Faisal’s lawyer, Mbugua Mureithi, said his client’s rights had been violated because he has been denied legal representation.

He said he had spoken with El-Faisal by telephone from prison, and his client complained that he has never been served with the deportation orders.

Mr Mbugua said he is seeking a court order to compel the government to release el-Faisal. Mr Kajwang said El-Faisal’s arrest should not be misconstrued as a religious war.

“It is a war against an individual who we have good reason to exclude from Kenya,” he said.