Lamu police under fire over vehicle used in attack on KDF soldiers

Lamu, Kenya: Police in Lamu are in a spot after it emerged they had in April offered armed escort for a mysterious white woman travelling in a vehicle that was used to attack and kill two Kenyan soldiers last week.

Investigations show the same Toyota Land Cruiser registration number KAV 599E was between April 15 and 22 used by a white woman who had hired it seeking to cross the Kenya-Somalia border to visit Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) troops in Ras Kamboni.

The woman spent her nights at the local WFP Hotel for almost a week while guarded by two armed policemen she got from Mukowe police post.

She is also said to have visited Mukokoni police post and other security installations as she attempted to cross to Somalia where she was to deliver a message to the soldiers at the camp.

But after making several attempts at the main border point, immigration and Kenya Revenue Authority officials denied them entry into Somalia.

“She tried to use police to gain entry into Somalia with a luggage she had in vain. The vehicle they were using was marked because it had been used previously by Al-Shabaab agents in Lamu,” said a senior police officer aware of the development. And after failing to cross to Somalia with the vehicle, the woman, who many now suspect could be the white widow, British-born Samantha Lewthwaite, vanished.

It emerged she paid each of the two cops Sh10,000 daily for her escorts and had posed as a United Nations official.

“Her aim was to reach the military camp in Ras Kamboni where we suspect she was to plant an explosion,” said another official in Mombasa who is aware of the investigations.

The two police officers who were with her and their senior at Mukowe who provided the escort have been interrogated.

Lamu East police chief Samuel Obara said they are still probing the incident and looking for more suspects.