Kenya wants immediate deportation of Jamaican cleric

Kenya wants immediate deportation of Jamaican cleric  

Saturday, January 16, 2010 NAIROBI (AFP) — Kenya wants the immediate deportation of a radical Jamaican Muslim cleric, a minister said Saturday, a day after youths demanding his release clashed with police, claiming five lives. 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. "The man must leave this country as soon as possible," Interior Minister George Saitoti told reporters. "It is a matter of great insult that a foreigner would come to this country and be the source of terrible misunderstanding among Kenyans and lead to destruction of property and injury of people," he added. On Friday, at least five people were killed in riots in which scores of Muslim youths hurled rocks at police who repelled them with live rounds and teargas. Saitoti also said sympathisers of Somalia's Al-Qaeda-inspired Shebab may have taken part in the protests. "We know that there are elements sympathetic to the Al-Shebab and there may be some of them around here," he said. "Those elements had planned much bigger mayhem than what you saw yesterday." Faisal's lawyers and rights groups have complained that the cleric is being held without charge. Police and immigration officials said at the time they arrested the imam for violating immigration regulations by preaching. 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.