By Maxwell Masava/Roy Agoya
A Kenyan suspected of working for Al-Shabaab has been arrested at the Kenya-Somalia border and brought to Nairobi for interrogation.
The man produced the Kenyan identity card number 9424444 indicating he was Alfred Kibet Kosgei from Endebess in the Rift Valley. Police doubt his identity and are now pursuing leads he has given them about where he was born and whether indeed he is a Kenyan citizen.
The man was arrested while travelling on a 52-seater bus called Faafi.
The bus had stopped for a routine check at a police roadblock mounted by Administration Police at Alijugur some 60 kilometres from the Somali border.
Preliminary findings indicated he started his journey in Nairobi and spent a night in Garissa town before boarding the bus for Alijugur. He left his luggage in the custody of the guesthouse where he spent the night.
“It appears he was just going to meet somebody and travel back to Garissa,” a source close to the investigations told the Star. The room at the guesthouse where the man spent the night has since been sealed off as the police search it for more clues.
Police became curious about the suspect because he was carrying a satellite phone. Police have impounded it to find out who he was in contact with. A satellite phone is a portable handset that connects through satellites in space rather than terrestrial masts. A satellite phone can function anywhere as it bypasses local telecoms systems so it cannot be tapped by security agencies.
Satphones are popular on expeditions into remote areas where terrestrial cellular service is unavailable, during disasters when the regular phone systems are destroyed or congested, or in war zones. In Kenya, satphone owners have to register with the CCK.
The man, who claimed he had served in the Ugandan Army, was also found with a digital camera with photos of classified government installations including Nyayo House and several ministries, military barracks as well as photos of Muthurwa Market and Machakos bus station that are usually packed with people.
Police Spokesman Erick Kiraithe said the man was escorted under tight security from Garissa to Nairobi for interrogation by the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit headed by Nicholas Kamwende.
“Let us wait for his identification first before we issue a statement,” said Kiraithe who did not want to discuss the details.
Government spokesman Dr Alfred Mutua said the suspect had already been handed over to the Ugandan authorities.
On Tuesday, Kenyan authorities handed over to Uganda a man suspected of collaborating in the Sunday night bombings in Kampala. Ali Isa Ssenkumba is a Ugandan born at Butambala, Mpigi in central Uganda.
Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for the two bomb attacks in Kampala that killed 76 people and injured hundreds watching the World Cup final at two venues. A Kenyan was among the casualties. An unexploded bomb vest for a suicide bomber was found in another Kampala bar on Monday.
The militia group said it targeted Uganda because its troops make up the bulk of the African Union Amisom force propping the transitional government in Somalia.
The heads of two assumed suicide bombers have been found at the Kampala bomb sites. One head allegedly had a ‘Somali’ appearance while the other looked like a central Ugandan.
In the 1990s, the ADF rebel group operated in western Uganda from bases in Eastern Congo. It carried out grenade attacks in Kampala in 1997. It had an Islamic fundamentalist agenda and several of its leaders were trained by Osama bin Laden in Sudan before he moved to Afghanistan in 1996. The ADF recruited mainly among Muslims in central and eastern Uganda.
The ADF has not been active for the past decade but Uganda police chief Gen Kale Kayihura speculated on Monday that ADF might have cooperated with Al-Shabaab in the Sunday bombings.
Kenyan security forces have been on high alert since the bombings in Kampala. Additional soldiers and policemen have been deployed along all border points to avert terrorist attacks in the country.
The African Union on Tuesday announced that it had deployed an additional 2,000 soldiers inside Somalia to tackle the militia insurgents.
Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere said border points in North Eastern Province have been sealed off by security teams to deal with any with any possible attacks by Somalia-based terrorist groups. Iteere was speaking as he continued his three-day tour of police stations in the Rift Valley.
So far, Ugandan authorities have arrested seven people in connection with the Sunday bombing attacks.The Uganda police is working closely with other regional and international security agents to unravel the bombings.
Kenya has reportedly sent four anti-terror detectives to Kampala to assist in investigations.
Uganda police spokesperson Judith Nabakooba has declined to release the identities or nationalities of the other six suspects in custody, saying the police are yet to fully interrogate the men.
Source: Nairobi Star
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