Release man in US prison, Obama told

Mombasa Senator Hassan Omar has urged US President Barack Obama to order the release of a Kenyan at a prison in America.

Mr Omar said President Obama would do great justice to Kenya if he released Abdul Malik from Guantanamo Bay prison where he is being held for suspected involvement in terror.

The senator said President Uhuru Kenyatta should push for the return of the Kenyan who has spent many years at the US prison.

Speaking at Longo primary school in Mtongwe, Mombasa county a weekend before the US President arrived in Kenya, Omar who is a human rights crusader said Malik was wrongly arrested over terror and therefore should be returned to the country.

"President Obama should engage President Uhuru Kenyatta on bilateral talks and other matters of development but not forget to set Abdul Malik free because he is innocent," Omar said.

LEFT YESTERDAY

He said for more than eight years now, Malik has not been charged while at the Guantanamo and there was no reason to further retain him there.

He said other countries have since been given their citizens and wondered why the Kenyan appeared to have been forgotten in the US prison.

He spoke when he presided over the school expansion project funded by Seacom company.

He was accompanied by Deputy County Commission Magu Mtindika, Seacom regional managers Peter Ouko and Mahmoud Noor and Mtongwe Ward Representative Hamisi Musa.

At the same time, Omar told Mombasa county leaders led by Hassan Joho to be countable to public funds and to embrace public participation.

President Obama left the country for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia last evening. He is expected to attend a regional meeting on South Sudan today.