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'Living on borrowed time,' said slain Muslim leader on Kenya's coast, killed by unknown gunmen

Associated Press
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FILE - In this Tuesday Oct. 29, 2013 file photo, Abubakar Shariff Ahmed, an influential member of a controversial mosque where two previous mosque leaders were killed under mysterious circumstances, sits in his office in Mombasa, Kenya. Writing in Arabic on Islam flag reads: "There is no God but God and Muhammed is his messenger". The lawyer for radical Islamic leader Abubakar Shariff Ahmed, who had been sanctioned by the United States and the United Nations for supporting the al-Qaida-linked Somali militant group al-Shabab, says his client has been assassinated Tuesday, April 1, 2014 along with another man whose identity has not yet been established, near the Shimo la Tewa prison in Mombasa, Kenya. (AP Photo/Jason Straziuso, File) (The Associated Press)

FILE - In this Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013 file photo, Abubakar Shariff Ahmed, an influential member of a controversial mosque where two previous mosque leaders were killed under mysterious circumstances, shows a book proving that he has checked in with police in his office in Mombasa, Kenya. The lawyer for radical Islamic leader Abubakar Shariff Ahmed, who had been sanctioned by the United States and the United Nations for supporting the al-Qaida-linked Somali militant group al-Shabab, says his client has been assassinated Tuesday, April 1, 2014 along with another man whose identity has not yet been established, near the Shimo la Tewa prison in Mombasa, Kenya. (AP Photo/Jason Straziuso, File) (The Associated Press)

In this photo taken Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2014, muslim cleric Abubakar Shariff Ahmed, right, argues with senior police officers outside the Masjid Musa Mosque in Mombasa, Kenya. The lawyer for radical Islamic leader Abubakar Shariff Ahmed, who had been sanctioned by the United States and the United Nations for supporting the al-Qaida-linked Somali militant group al-Shabab, says his client has been assassinated Tuesday, April 1, 2014 along with another man whose identity has not yet been established, near the Shimo la Tewa prison in Mombasa, Kenya. (AP Photo) (The Associated Press)

The charismatic Muslim leader on Kenya's coast was certain that he would be killed.

Abubakar Shariff Ahmed — known as Makaburi — told an Associated Press reporter in October that "I'm living on borrowed time." On Monday night, his premonition came true.

Before the interview with AP, two Muslim leaders of what authorities say is a radical Mombasa mosque had already been killed by unknown gunmen. Rights activists blamed government death squads.

Sitting under a cloth with a hand-painted sword on it and a religious text in Arabic, Makaburi said that whoever had ordered his two friends killed would also order his death.

Makaburi, who was accused of links with Somali militants, was shot and killed by unidentified gunmen Monday night in Mombasa.