ZANZIBAR: Police nab 2 over cleric’s attack

By The Citizen Reporter, Zanzibar. 

Police in Zanzibar have arrested two suspects in connection with the shooting of Father Ambrose Mkenda, a Roman Catholic priest at Mpendae Parish in the Isles.

The priest was shot and seriously wounded on Christmas Day as he alighted from his car on arrival at his residence.

The Zanzibar police head of information, Inspector Mohamed Mhina, said yesterday: “The suspects were arrested on Saturday night by detectives from Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam.”

However, he declined to mention names of the two suspects saying investigations were still going on.

The Zanzibar deputy director of criminal investigations, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Yusuf Ilembo, said yesterday that the police will hunt down and arrest all people believed to have been involved in the shooting of the priest.

President Jakaya Kikwete visited Fr Mkenda at the Muhimbili Orthopaedic Institute (MOI) in Dar es Salaam on Saturday to console him.

The minister for Home Affairs, Mr Emmanuel Nchimbi, also visited the priest at MOI and vowed to bring all the culprits to book.

The Inspector General of Police, Mr Saidi Mwema, had already sent a team of detectives from Dar es Salaam to work with their Zanzibar counterparts in probing the grisly incident.

This is the second attack on a cleric in recent weeks. In November a Muslim cleric was attacked with acid, and seriously injured in his face and chest, as he was jogging along the beach.

Speaking at his hospital bed, Fr Mkenda said over the weekend that leaflets inciting attacks on priests and bishops were distributed in Zanzibar before he was attacked.

He urged the government to address the problem seriously.

Source: The Citizen (31/12/2012): http://www.thecitizen.co.tz/news/4-national-news/27968-police-nab-2-over-clerics-attack