The Director of Public Prosecutions has extended the tenure of a probe team that is investigating the murder of controversial Muslim cleric Aboud Rogo.
Keriako Tobiko said the team whose mandate expired on Wednesday had asked for an extension of two months to allow it to complete the remaining work.
“We had a meeting with the team today. It indicated a lot of work has been done like recording of statements but there are a number of areas that require to be fully addressed. They requested for their term to be extended which I have granted,” he asserted.
He further agreed to gazette the probe team as a taskforce.
“The team recommended, in order to give it a legal basis, that they be converted into a taskforce and be gazetted with clear terms of reference.”
The 11-member team was appointed end of last month to investigate the murder of Rogo and also uncover other acts of criminality that included the burning of churches and killing of police officers during demonstrations in Mombasa following the death of the cleric.
The team coordinated by Jacob Ondari, from the DPP’s office (ODPP) has representatives from the police, the ODPP, Law Society of Kenya, Commission on Administrative Justice, Kenya National Commission on Human Rights and Independent Policing Oversight Authority.
Rogo was on both the US and UN sanctions lists for allegedly supporting Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab militants.
He was killed on August 27 in Mombasa when unidentified gunmen opened fire on his vehicle as he was driving with his father, wife and children, leaving it riddled with bullets.
Images released by his supporters showed his bloody corpse slumped behind the wheel. His wife and children reportedly survived the attack.
Furious protests erupted after his death, with one person hacked to death, cars torched, businesses attacked and five churches looted or set on fire.
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