By Patrick Beja and Cyrus Ombati
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Five suspects of Somalia origin were arrested as they sailed on a speedboat towards Lamu Island Friday at 1pm.
The sixth suspect was nabbed in Nairobi as he took a suspected injured Al Shabaab militant to a hospital in South B estate.
There was tension in Lamu, where an annual cultural festival is taking place, as police arrived with the suspects on speedboats before taking them to Lamu Police Station under tight security.
Police say the suspects could have tossed their weapons into the sea when the officers on speedboats caught up with them.
Heading to Lamu
The suspects, one bare-chested, looked frail and exhausted. Lamu Deputy OCPD Joseph Sigei said police acted on a tip off from residents, who had spotted the speed boat in the morning.
"We deployed police officers after receiving a tip off and caught up with the speedboat carrying the five men as they headed towards Lamu town," Sigei said. The suspects’ boat was still at sea and police officers said it could be moved to Lamu Island later.
The suspects were identified as Ahmed Omar (19), Ali Mohamed (23), Abdullahi Mohamed (24), Mohamed Abdi Mohamed (32) and Jama Mohamed Adan (27).
Sigei yesterday said divers have been dispatched with detectors to the scene to search for possible weapons the suspects could have thrown into the sea.
Language barrier
Sigei said the suspects would be questioned with the help of a Somali translator since they cannot speak Kiswahili or English.
"All five speak only Somali and we have to use a translator to interrogate them," Sigei said.
He said it was possible the suspects could be running away from the war between Kenyan security personnel and the Al Shabaab.
When information reached the police, two military choppers hovered over Lamu and around the Manda Bay to help track down the suspects.
In the Nairobi arrest, police said the suspect had come with a man with bullet wounds.
The man, identified as Hassan Mohamed Abdi, is helping the police with investigation on possible leads to Al Shabaab network in Nairobi.
"He is with us and we believe he has a lot to tell regarding this network," said a senior police officer, who asked not to be named.
Anti terrorism police said the suspect, who is also known as Hassan Aden Abdi and Hassan Garrow to his friends, was arrested along with Farid Jama, a Somali of Tanzanian origin, who was involved in sneaking the injured man into the country.
According to their statements and passport records, the injured man left Mogadishu for Hargeisa in Somaliland. From there, he took a flight to Entebbe and then came to Kenya through unmanned border points in Busia.
Jama claimed the injured man is a relative. "These are among many tricks the Al Shabaab use to gain entry into the country," the officer said.
Hassan was also found with passports from various countries, among them South African, British and Dutch.