Hate cleric expulsion cost Kenya '$ 500,000'

Nairobi, 26 Jan-(ANA)-Kenya paid more than $ 500,000 to deport controversial Jamaican Muslim preacher Abdullah al-Faisal, according to Immigration Minister Otieno Kajwang.

He was finally expelled last week on a chartered jet, after Kenya had spent three weeks trying to deport him.

Meanwhile, two immigration officials have been suspended for letting Faisal into the country in the first place.

The cleric spent four years in a UK jail for soliciting the murder of Jews and Hindus.

Kenya's attempts to deport him were blocked when several countries refused to grant him a transit visa and he was stranded in Nairobi.

He was held in detention while the authorities organised his expulsion - provoking rallies by Muslim groups which ended in clashes with police. (ANA)

FA/ANA/29 January 2010----