Suspect: I am an Al Shabaab

By Lucianne Limo

The two suspects arrested in Eastleigh with bombs, grenades and a cache of weapons last week were arraigned before a Nairobi court, where one owned up and adimitted being a member of the terror group  Al Shabaab.

Abdimajid Yasin Mohamed alias Hussein also appeared before Nairobi magistrate Lucy Nyambura and admitted to being a member of the outlawed criminal group.

His co-accused Omar Abdi Adan alias Salman Abdi denied being a member.

The court ordered a psychiatric examination of the first suspect. The case will come up for mention on the 20th September 2012.

Two suspected terrorists have been arrested and six suicide bombs, 12 grenades, four AK 47 rifles and 480 bullets recovered from them as police thwarted a major terror plot in Nairobi.

The two terror suspects were arrested from a residential house last Thursday night in Eastleigh area where they had been staying in the past two months while plotting the alleged attack on churches.

Police said they were part of a larger terror gang that planned to attack strategic buildings in the city. Two other suspects are at large and police have been hunting  for them.  The suspects apparently planned to use arsenals to attack  churches.

The suicide bombs had been mounted on vests attached with mobile phones with batteries, which police said would have ignited a major explosions.

Detectives from Special Crimes Prevention Unit and Flying Squad said they stumbled on the weapons as they pursued information that the four suspects of Somali origin had brought in the four rifles.