Kenyan arrested over bombings

By Cyrus Ombati

Another Kenyan was arrested in Nairobi in connection with last month’s Kampala bombing, which killed 76 people as they watched the World Cup final.

The man in his early 30s was arrested in South C estate in an operation by tens of police led by detectives from Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU).

He was immediately taken to Uganda by road where he would be enjoined in a case with other Kenyans facing similar murder charges.

The arrest came three days after three Ugandans, who were arrested in Mombasa, confessed planning and executing the attack.

Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe confirmed the arrest yesterday, but declined to details.

"He is a Kenyan and we will continue with the operations to get rid of these Al-Shabaab sympathisers," he said.

Sources said the detectives were certain the suspect was involved in the planning.

The arrest brought to four Kenyans arrested in connection with the Kampala bombings.

Already, Idris Magondu, 42, Hussein Hassan Agad, 27, and Muhammed Aden Addow, 25, have been charged with 89 offences –three counts of terrorism, 76 counts of murder, and 10 counts of attempted murder. They have been remanded at Luzira Prison until August 27.

The name of the Kenyan suspect arrested yesterday was not immediately released.

The three Ugandans who have confessed participating in planning and executing the bombings were arrested in Mombasa and later flown out in a chartered plane.

The Ugandan Government had chartered the plane after Kenyan authorities informed them they suspect the three men were involved in the bombings. ATPU detectives said the arrests came after almost a month of investigations that involved various agencies.

"There is evidence they were involved in the bombings and that is why we decided to take the Kenyan to Uganda to face charges there," said a senior source privy to the incident.

Details have since emerged how the Kenyans were nabbed in an operation that took three weeks to complete.

A mobile phone found alongside an unexploded suicide vest led police to the suspects. Police discovered an unexploded suicide vest packed into a black laptop bag at a third site in a nightclub southwest of Kampala.

The mobile phone could have been used to set off the explosive device remotely, police said.

Investigators were able to discern records related to calls made or received on the phone using its serial number. The discovery is believed to have forced Ugandan Inspector General of Police Kale Kayihura to visit Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere in Nairobi last month before the arrests were made.

Police picked the three Kenyans on July 26 from Mlolongo and Kawangware estates in Nairobi, and handed them over to Ugandan authorities on July 28.

Detectives had tried to arrest the three after establishing that they were in Kenya but they made little headway partly because one of the suspects, Magondu, whose mobile phone was being tracked, had temporarily stopped using it.

But on July 25, he used the same phone to call the customer service of the Kenya Power and Lighting Company to enquire about his electricity bill.

Sources said America’s FBI, Interpol and detectives from CID in Nairobi interrogated the trio at an undisclosed location before handing them over.