Majengo: the home of terrorism

For decades, dating back to the days of Kanu supremo Shariff Nassir, Majengo, then a slum in the wider Mvita constituency, was generally avoided by non-residents because of its youths.

The young people were always beady-eyed from too much consumption of the trendy drugs then — bhang and hashish.

Mr Nassir, a minister in the Moi administration, spent a lot of his time inside police stations, bailing out his followers who formed brigades that protected him from his enemies.

They even set upon the enemies whenever the order was issued.

If Mr Nassir were to rise from the dead today, he would not only be shocked beyond his wildest imagination to see where the youths he protected almost with his life have transformed themselves into.

Today, Majengo is a crossbreed that has characteristics of both Kabul and Mogadishu.

For close to two years, the slum, which former legislator and current Jubilee Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala exalted from its slimy existence into some middle class pretensions, has become the home of terrorism, rivalling even Nairobi, Wajir and Mandera in notoriety.

What surprises most people is how fast the change has come in Majengo and what factors have made it into a leader of Islamic extremism, which even the former radicals who spearheaded the intifada against the Moi regime during the Islamic Party of Kenya (IPK) crises cannot understand.

HIGH-STRUNG CONFLICT

The IPK was about political liberation but it is not clear what the present high-strung conflict is all about.

Matters came to a head two years ago when the Imam of the Masjid Musa in Majengo, Sheikh Aboud Rogo, was shot and killed on the Mombasa-Mtwapa road near Pirates Beach in a morning raid.

There were speculations about the killing, the most popular being that he had been shot by the Federal Bureau of Investigations of the United States for leading the radicalisation of Mombasa youths and sending them to join Al-Shabaab militants in Somalia.

Sheikh Rogo was not a run-of-the-mill extremist because he is said to have benefited immensely from the human trafficking scam he excelled in, and which is suspected of leading to the harsh retributions being suffered today.

After the killing of Sheikh Rogo, there have been many other high-level assassinations of Muslim clerics.

However, what is now seen is that the killings are being conducted on a quid pro quo basis — when an extremist is killed today, a preacher who pushes for peace and reconciliation is killed tomorrow.

For example, those who knew Sheikh Mohamed Idriss, a key figure in the IPK movement, which sought to reintroduce democratic practice in the country, will tell you that he was essentially anti-extremism.

A similar case is the recent killing of Sheikh Salim Mwarangi. He was also an anti-extremist preacher, whose death has been mourned by Christians and Muslims alike.

His death is seen as retaliation for the recent assassination of a suspected terrorist near the Sapphire Hotel.

Police claimed the man had killed one of their own and robbed him of his gun and ammunition.

RADICALISATION

The government has issued orders to get rid of all top suspects involved in the radicalisation of youths in Kenya.

The radicalisation is believed to be fuelled by functionaries of terrorist organisations in the region.

The raid on Masjid Sakina on Sunday night, which used to be headed by Sheikh Idriss before he was ousted and then later assassinated, has caused panic and fear in Mombasa as a cache of weapons, DVDs and grenades were uncovered.

This comes shortly after a gang of suspects was arrested in Nairobi with plans to launch terrorist attacks in the city.