Terror suspect with us, Uganda says

By Wahome Thuku

The Ugandan Government has confirmed having received a Kenyan terror suspect arrested in Nairobi last week.

In a letter to their Kenyan counterparts, Uganda’s Criminal Investigations Department acknowledged Mr Mohammed Hamid Suleiman has been with them since Saturday.

Senior Police Commissioner Elly Womanya received the suspect at Kibuli CID headquarters from a Mr Daniel Wachira. He is expected to face charges in connection to last month’s twin bombings in Kampala.

But as the letter was produced before a High Court in Nairobi, a human rights lawyer Mbugua Mureithi urged the judge to declare the arrest and detention of Hamid unlawful.

Mr Mureithi said the removal of Hamid from Kenyan territory was in total disregard of written extradition laws and the Constitution.

Acknowledging that the courts had no more power to order for his return, Mureithi said the removal was an act of impunity and should be declared illegal.

Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU) officers arrested Hamid last Friday night at Akiba Estate in Nairobi’s South C, and was on Saturday morning taken to Uganda through Busia entry point.

His wife Zuhura Suleiman filed an urgent application through Mureithi on Monday to have the police ordered to explain his arrest.

Mureithi argued that for one to be extradited, that other country, in this case Uganda, must first file criminal charges in their courts then make a formal request to Kenya. That, however, had not been the case.