Radical cleric told he must stay in jail

Otieno Kajwang said Sheik Abdullah el-Faisal was jailed because he is a threat to the security of the country.

Mr Kajwang said he issued the order that el-Faisal be held in jail but declined to say for how long. Kenyan law allows police to hold suspects for 24 hours without charging them.

Britain said that el-Faisal's teachings heavily influenced one of the men who carried out the London bombings that killed 52 innocent people.

The Jamaican-born cleric has called for Americans, Hindus and Jews to be killed.

"We are, as a country, still of the opinion that this gentleman is not safe for Kenya," Mr Kajwang told reporters. "We are in a very difficult situation which we must tackle but in the interest of the country we will not release him until we send him home."

Attempts to deport el-Faisal last Thursday failed because he was denied a transit visa when he arrived in Nigeria en route to Gambia, which had agreed to host him. El-Faisal was flown back to Kenya on Sunday morning.

Mr Kajwang said by the time el-Faisal got to Nigeria, Gambian authorities had also refused to grant him entry because of the "bad publicity" surrounding his deportation.

Britain, South Africa, Tanzania and the US have declined to grant el-Faisal a transit visa that would allow him to connect to flights to Jamaica.

El-Faisal served four years in a British jail for inciting murder and stirring racial hatred by urging followers to kill Americans, Hindus and Jews. He once led a London mosque attended by convicted terrorists.

Human rights activists protested against el-Faisal's imprisonment saying that he was being held in jail without trial.

Al-Amin Kimathi, the coordinator of the Muslim Human Rights Forum, asked the government to release el-Faisal to the custody of the Muslim community in the country until they make proper arrangements to deport him.