Police detained 52 people on Friday in Kenya’s main port city, a day after an officer was killed in a suspected revenge attack, heightening tensions in an area where the authorities say militant Islamist is spreading.
After a recent spate of attacks, police detained dozens of youths from mosques in Mombasa which they say are used by radical preachers as recruitment centers. The arrests have angered many Muslims in the mainly Christian nation.
A senior officer with Kenya’s counter-terrorism police unit was shot dead by gunmen on Thursday in Mombasa, in what police said could be revenge for the crackdown, prompting a new round of arrests that diplomats say will likely fuel more violence.
Geoffrey Mayek, Mombasa county police chief, told Reuters that police had made the 52 arrests to try to track down the killers, who are believed to have taken the rifle of the slain police officer — Ibrahim Mohammed.
