Wundanyi police arrest teen suspected to have returned from al Shabaab camp

VOI: Police are holding a secondary school drop-out on suspicion he has joined the Al Shabaab terror group after he disappeared for about two years and returned recently.

Wundanyi Deputy OCS Christopher Lang'at and area acting chief Elijah Kimbichi led security personnel in raiding Mkororo village in the outskirts of Wundanyi town and arrested the 17-year-old suspect.

Police recovered from the suspect a handset without a sim card and a bicycle. He was briefly detained at the police station before he was handed over to the Voi criminal investigations department for further interrogation.

The former student of school in Mwatate sub-county, is said to have mysteriously disappeared from his Wundanyi home in September 2014 and resurfaced this week.

According to his mother Pauline Kichoi, the teenager secretly left home and said he was going to look for a lucrative job in Saudi Arabia.

"My first-born son left a note saying that he was going to Saudi Arabia to look for a job. The note said he will come back home rich or poor," said the mother of four at Wundanyi Police Station. "We had earlier reported his disappearance to the police station. We also searched for him in local mines but in vain."

She said as soon as her son resurfaced, they alerted police.

Mwatate OCPD Francis Mwangi said the suspect claimed to have been residing in Kibwezi.

He said the suspect dropped out of school and went to unknown destination. "The suspect's parents were not aware of his whereabouts for the last two years," said the police officer.

The incident comes barely a year after another suspected member of Al Shabaab was arrested at Mgange Nyika trading centre in Taita.

Police recovered from the 23-year-old suspect, three Somali currency notes, Arabic literature, three mobile phones and five sim cards including bus ticket receipts showing he had come from Garissa.

In another recent incident, police arrested a man suspected to be a member of the terrorist group, who had been hiding in a ranch in the county. He was said to have had a deep rotting wound on the head.