Mohamed Idris

MOMBASA: Gunmen in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa on Tuesday shot dead an influential moderate Muslim cleric who was a vocal opponent of the radical preachings of Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-linked Shabab insurgents, police said.

Mohamed Idris, 64, chairman of the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya, was shot in the stomach shortly before dawn as he headed to prayers at a mosque, Mombasa police chief Robert Kitur told AFP.

Mombasa County Commissioner Nelson Marwa said it was a drive-by shooting, with unknown gunmen firing from a motorbike.

“They shot him in the abdomen and he was pronounced dead at the hospital,” Marwa said.