Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has used an historic visit to a mosque to call on Muslims to help in the fight against extremism

President Kenyatta went to the Jamia Mosque in the capital, Nairobi, to break the fast on Thursday night.

His office says it was the first time a sitting Kenyan president visited and prayed at a mosque.

President Kenyatta called for unity in the country and said that the Muslim community “should work closely with the government in fighting crime and extremism”, according to a statement from his office.

“When we see violence occasioned, this violence is not occasioned by Muslims or Christians but by criminals.

“It is this criminal that we fight because they are enemies of Muslims and Christians and all other religious groups,” Mr Kenyatta is quoted as saying.

There have been several attacks carried out in Kenya by the Somali-based militant group al-Shabab in recent years.

Among the most deadly was an attack on a university campus in Garissa in2015 in which nearly 150 people died. In January this year, at least 21 people died in an attack on a hotel and office complex in Nairobi.