Kenya 'deports cleric to Gambia'

Nairobi, 08 Jan-(ANA)-Kenya has deported to The Gambia a Jamaican-born Muslim cleric notorious for preaching racial hatred, Kenya's immigration minister says.

Abdullah al-Faisal was arrested last week and there have been conflicting reports about his whereabouts.

"We had problems deporting him because many countries, including the US, declined to have him even on transit," the minister, Otieno Kajwang, said.

Mr Kajwang said Faisal was being expelled for his "terrorist history".

The cleric has served four years in a UK prison after being convicted of soliciting the murder of Jews and Hindus.

"He chose Gambia and we have deported him there this morning," Mr Kajwang told reporters, AFP news agency reports.

"In fact the information we have is that he has already landed there and Gambia has received him."

There have been protests from Muslim human rights groups about his treatment.

Al-Amin Kimathi, of the Muslim Human Rights Forum, said Faisal should have been sent to Jamaica.

"It was his wish that he be taken to Jamaica, but not any other place," Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper quotes Mr Kimathi as saying.

He alleged Faisal was "being mistreated on the basis of his alleged past record".

Faisal was born Trevor William Forrest in St James, Jamaica, and left the island for the UK 26 years ago.

His parents were Salvation Army officers and he was raised as a Christian.

At the age of 16 he went to Saudi Arabia - where he is believed to have spent eight years - and became a Muslim.

He took a degree in Islamic Studies in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, before coming back to the UK.

Faisal spent years travelling the UK preaching racial hatred urging his audience to kill Jews, Hindus and Westerners.

A year after being deported from the UK in 2007, he was preaching in South Africa.

The Kenyan authorities said Faisal had arrived in Kenya on 24 December after travelling through Nigeria, Angola, Mozambique, Swaziland and Malawi and Tanzania. (ANA)

FA/ANA/08 January 2010----