Muslim leaders opposing mosque operation to be questioned, says DP William Ruto

The Government has said the killing of 28 Kenyans by Al-Shabab members in Mandera on Saturday will not stop the ongoing crackdown targeting mosques that harbour terrorists.

The terror group had claimed responsibility for the attack on grounds that it was revenging the takeover of some mosques by security forces in Mombasa.

In a stern warning, Deputy President William Ruto yesterday said the Government will question several Muslim leaders who have come out to criticize the security operations. Ruto noted that 100 Al-shabab responsible for the attack had been killed during a crackdown deep into Somalia.

Addressing journalists last evening in Nairobi, the DP said it was unacceptable that would-be holy places could be turned into battle pavilions and holding grounds for artillery meant to inflict injury, suffering and death to Kenyans.

Smell of death still evident in targeted bus He hit at some elected leaders whom he said were regrettably now criticizing the ongoing operations despite the recovery of weapons from three mosques in Mombasa last week.

“This is the perversity of terrorism. Its perpetrators have no qualms desecrating places of worship, religion and the God they claim to embrace. Surprisingly and in spite of this discovery, some people, even elected leaders, have abdicated their responsibility,” he said. Asked to name the politicians and why the State can’t arrest them, Ruto replied; “They know themselves but the arm of the law is not short and will catch up with them.

” He said between November 17 and 21, security forces guided by sound intelligence launched co-ordinated operations on four mosques that had been taken over by radicalized gangs in Mombasa. “These operations confirmed the nation’s worst fears: That the houses of worship had been converted into armouries where guns, grenades and bomb-making materials, crude weapons including machetes and knives, radicalized propaganda literature and Al-Shabab insignia, including flags, not holy books and manuals for guidance unto light, were stored.” Ruto expressed concern over some Kenyans who sympathize with, harbour, facilitate and defend terrorists and their activities.

These individuals quite regrettably continue to whip up emotions among communities and to offer terrorists and their sympathizers the false comfort of civil rights protection.” The politicians, according to the DP, will be asked to answer how mosques came to harbour caches of arms, how it could be that some religious leaders were ejected from the houses of worship and when and why houses of worship became platforms where clarion calls for the death of other Kenyans are made.

Source : The Standard