NAIROBI, 5 August 2003 — A terror suspect arrested in the Kenyan city of Mombasa last week possibly linked to the Al-Qaeda network has been taken to Nairobi for further interrogation, Junior Justice Minister Robinson Githae said yesterday.
“The suspect was brought to Nairobi over the weekend ... police investigators are currently interrogating him to get more information on terrorism activities at the coast,” Githae.
The suspect now being questioned by police was arrested just hours before a fellow suspect killed both himself and a police officer when he detonated a grenade after being arrested in the port city of Mombasa on Friday.
The suspect in custody is said to have given police information which led to the arrest of the man who blew himself up, and who according to police was carrying documents which linked him to the Al-Qaeda network of Osama Bin Laden.
Friday’s arrest operation was carried out by police in connection with last November’s car-bomb attack on an Israeli-owned hotel north of Mombasa, in which 12 Kenyans and three Israelis were killed. Both that bombing, for which five people now face murder charges, and a near-miss missile attack on a jet carrying Israeli tourists have been claimed by Al-Qaeda.
The dead suspect, a man in his early 20s, is believed to have been from Yemen. Githae said police were “following leads” in a bid to rearrest another suspect, also said to be in his 20s, who managed to escape in the confusion caused by the blast.
Police have described the detained suspect as a Kenyan man much older than the man who blew himself up. Githae said Friday’s arrest operation was carried out solely by Kenya’s anti-terrorism police unit.
“The operation was carried out by the Kenyan anti-terrorism police unit without help from the FBI,” he said. A local newspaper report had claimed that detectives from the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) picked up the suspect from the custody of Kenyan police in Mombasa and whisked him to Nairobi.
Meanwhile, South African and Kenyan ministers were preparing a draft trade protocol and working to repair relations between the two countries in Pretoria yesterday ahead of a visit by Kenyan leader Mwai Kibaki, officials said.
Kibaki will be the first Kenyan head of state to make an official visit to South Africa when he starts his three-day tour. Delegations led by South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Kenya’s Kalonzo Musyoka were discussing trade relations, conflict resolution and improving governance on the continent, officials in Pretoria said.
Mistrust has long hurt ties between the two countries, the dominant economies in eastern and southern Africa and seen by many as potential partners in Africa’s development.
But Kibaki’s election in December gives an opportunity to erase suspicions born of trade rivalry and ideological rifts and forge links that could help the continent reverse its decline.
Trade between the two countries is heavily weighted in South Africa’s favor and Kenya is anxious to change that, senior officials in Kenya’s delegation said.
