CapitalFM Kenya
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Police have launched an investigation and search for alleged Al Shabaab
assassins said to be targeting a Cabinet Minister and the Deputy House
Speaker for elimination, for leading the fight against the militias in
Somalia.
A source at the CID headquarters told Capital News that director
Ndegwa Muhoro had picked out a team which has been given the specific
task of looking for the assassins.
Some of the officers will be based in Nairobi while others have been
sent to North Eastern Province, where the Defense Minister Yusuf Haji
and Deputy Speaker Farah Maalim come from.
“There are officers who have been assigned to ensure they get the Al
Shabaab who are said to be in the country to eliminate leaders,” the
police source said. He did not state the number of officers involved.
The officer also confirmed that no suspect had been arrested or
questioned over the matter so far, but revealed that “there are crucial
clues being pursued.”
Revelations about the assassination plot were revealed in Parliament
on Wednesday through a letter authored by Internal Security Permanent
Secretary Francis Kimemia.
Kimemia said in the letter that the suspected Al Shabaab assassins
were dispatched from Lower Juba to areas of Lagdera and Ijara, with
express instructions to eliminate the two leaders.
His letter did not state the exact number of assassins thought to have crossed the border into Kenya.
“Similarly, the militia has dispatched some unidentified explosive
experts from the Buale area of Southern Somalia to attack Habaswein and
Elwak markets on undisclosed dates,” Kimemia’s letter read in part.
The December 15th letter copied to Haji and Maalim states that the
North Eastern Provincial Commissioner James Ole Serian is under firm
instructions to enhance security in his region, in the wake of a series
of blasts mainly targeting security agents.
“Al Shabaab appears determined to continue pursuing targets in Kenya.
You should continue with security vigilance to deter infiltration and
also apprise the targeted officials of the new and persisting threats,”
the PS wrote in the letter to the North Eastern PC.
When the matter was raised in Parliament on Wednesday, Haji announced
that he would not be “intimidated or cowed by the Al Shabaab threats.”
“We have reports that the Al Shabaab have sent militants to target
us, but I want to say here that I will not be cowed from doing that
which I am supposed to do to protect out territorial integrity,” the
Minister told Parliament.
“Our troops will continue with their work inside Somalia until we
liberate the Somali people from the criminal network which has reigned
there for 40 years. We will not be cowed at all,” he said without
elaborating on measures the government was taking to protect them
against the fresh threats.
The Defense Minister said the joint security operation by Kenya
Defense Forces and Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government forces in
pursuit of Al Shabaab in South and Central Somalia was unstoppable.
“We will not stop at all. The war against Al Shabaab is unstoppable,” he said.
MPs urged the government to put in place proper measures to protect
the two government officials from what Imenti Central MP Gitobu Imanyara
termed as “these very serious threats of assassination. The government
must protect them. We want to know if proper security measures have been
put in place to guarantee their security.”
Since Kenya sent troops across the border into Somalia two months
ago, north-eastern Kenya has been hit by a series of blasts, many
targeting local security forces.
Kenyan officials blame the Al Shabaab insurgents or their
sympathisers for the bombings and shootings, although armed bandits also
operate in the border areas.
Gunmen seized two Spaniards working for Medecins Sans Frontiers
(Doctors Without Borders) from Dadaab in October and are thought to have
taken them to Somalia.
The kidnapping of the Spaniards was one of the incidents that spurred
Kenya to send troops into Somalia to fight the Al Qaeda-linked Al
Shabaab militia in mid-October.
Regional armies are now pushing against Al Shabaab positions in
Somalia, with Kenyan forces in the south, Ugandan and Burundian African
Union forces in Mogadishu, and Ethiopian troops in the west.