Kenyan terror suspect kidnapped

The Standard Digital News
Thursday, May 24, 2012

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A Kenyan who had been linked to Somalia’s to Al Shabaab Sylvester Owino Opiyo Musa Osodo is missing after he was allegedly kidnapped by unknown people in Molo.

Opiyo was “carjacked” on Wednesday night at the junction of Molo-Mau Summit highway where a car he was driving had broken down. According to his lawyer Chaacha Mwita and Muslim Human Rights activist Al-Amin Kimathi, Opiyo was kidnapped together with another man identified as Jacob Musyoka.

The two were driving with four Muslim ladies to Kisumu where they were supposed to drop them to attend a madrassa.
“We have asked police if they are aware of their whereabouts but they say they do not know. We are yet to know where they are up to now after their abduction in Molo,” said Mwita.

Kimathi said the women were abandoned on the roadside where their car had broken down as the kidnappers drove off with Opiyo and Musyoka.

“None seems to know where they are but we want police to come out clean on this and investigate the case thoroughly,” said Kimathi.

Ironically, Opiyo was supposed to report to the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit for questioning over past claims of his links to the terror group.

Mwita said he was still and hoping the two will surface. Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said he was not aware of any police operation on the highway and denied suggestions police could have been involved.

This was after Kimathi claimed Opiyo had informed the women he had spotted known police officers to him in Lari and Nakuru trailing them.

Opiyo has been under police surveillance since last December when police for the first time circulated his picture saying he was wanted over terror links. He has since then been reporting at the ATPU offices for questioning.

He was in February arrested alongside three others after unknown people threw grenades at a crowd at the Machakos country bus killing nine people.

Opiyo who is originally from Siaya and Hussein Nderitu Abbas from Nyeri were required to report to the nearest police station for questioning on a regular basis.

Both individuals have cases pending in courts having been arrested in March 2011.

Police reports show Opiyo and other local youths had been to Somalia where they joined the terror group for jihad war against the Transitional Federal Government troops.

t was after he arrived back in Kenya that police put him on the radar. Meanwhile, a Swiss national accused of being a member of a terror group and being in the country illegally has been remanded in jail until June 6, 2012.

Magd Najjar appeared before Milmani court Senior resident magistrate Paul Biwott for the second time in a week to answer charges of being a member of Somalia’s Al-Shabaab terror group after he recanted his earlier confessions.
Najjar is also accused of being in the country illegally. He had pleaded guilty to the charges on May 14.

But as he was being given mention and hearing dates, he changed his mind saying he wanted to plead not guilty. It was then that he was given a lawyer who made an application for the mention of the case that set for Wednesday.

He was represented by Ms Edna Kaemba when he appeared in court. Najjar as he is identified according to his passport was arrested from a lodging along Mfangano Street in Nairobi where he had been hiding for days after avoiding police dragnet.

He had been trailed to North Eastern province but avoided the police dragnet and abandoned a vehicle he was using and used a different one to Nairobi. A police report on his movements says he and a Somali national identified as Edogal had escaped from Somalia and came to Eastleigh for treatment.

They had apparently been injured in a shelling in Afmadowh area in Somalia.

And after police got wind of them being in the city for treatment, they allegedly hired a salon car using third party that they wanted to travel to cross the main border.

"On reaching Garissa, they abandoned the car and changed their route and instead decided to come back to Nairobi. It was then that we arrested them in the city," said police spokesman Eric Kiraithe.

Kiraithe said Edogal is still at large and that they had been informed he took a bus and escaped to Mombasa where he is believed to be.

Najjar’s traveling documents showed he entered Kenya on February 23, 2011 after he was granted a visa that was to run from January 31 2011 to April 30, 2011.

And after his visa expired he reportedly never laboured to renew it as per the law. He was scheduled to appear in Nairobi court on Monday.

Anti-terror police who are handling his case said they had confirmed he had been to Somalia and back using the porous borders.
Police statistics show an increase of the number of foreigners flocking to Kenya seeking to join the Al Shabaab terror group.

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