Lack of forensic labs making terror attacks probe hard

By Lillian Aluanga-Delvaux

October 2011, a grenade is hurled into a crowd of commuters at the OTC bus terminus on Racecourse Road in Nairobi killing one person and injuring dozens. 

Hours later a similar attack occurs, this time in a pub on Mfangano Street. In the months that follow, Garissa, Wajir, Mombasa, and Nairobi make headlines in a string of grenade attacks that have hit the country in the past six months.

The attacks, which have registered only one conviction, have seen pressure pile on the country’s security organs to ensure culprits are punished.

So far, Elgiva Bwire Oliacha, alias Mohammed Seif, who was linked to the OTC bus terminus attack, is the only suspect to have been convicted. He is serving a life sentence.

At the Coast, a man linked to last month’s grenade attack at the Bella Vista Sports bar was arrested, while another suspect held over a similar attack at the God’s House of Miracles Church in Ngara, in April, is in remand until June 20 when his case will be heard.

Four men suspected to be behind the spate of grenade attacks in Northern Kenya were also arrested last week.

But there have been incidences that still remain unresolved, with no suspects arrested or arraigned in court since their occurrence. An example is the 2010 Uhuru Park crusade-cum-‘No’ prayer rally in the run up to the referendum on the Constitution.

In the Country Bus Station grenade attack, four suspects including three minors were arrested but later released. Then there was also the case of two suspects allegedly linked to terror activities — Mohammed Kassim and Samir Hussein — who wound up dead in Voi. Kassim had, in March, been arrested, but later released, while Hussein had a terror related case pending at Kibera Law Courts.

As calls for more arrests and prosecutions in the wake of the attacks mount, the police force has come out to defend itself.

“The right role of police officers is to enforce the law. However, prevention of crime is also our responsibility but incase it happens then we must be given time to conduct investigation in order to know the perpetrators,” says Deputy Police Spokesman Charles Owino.

Terrorism, he says, is a global challenge whose dynamics had shifted in recent years.

“Previously the attacks such as the 1998 US embassy bombing in Nairobi and the Kikambala attack at the Coast were against interests of nations like the US and Israel, even though locals were also killed and wounded. That has changed and we now have attacks targeting the civilian population. This means anybody is a target and since the police cannot be everywhere at the same time, it makes it a difficult situation to handle,” he says.

But security expert Rtd Captain Simiyu Werunga says the reason why the force may be finding it difficult to nail suspects is simple: the country lacks a well-defined national crime databank and forensic laboratories.

“We must enhance our forces’ capacity to investigate. This includes setting up a national crime data bank that will enable security organs profile suspects.

Intelligence service

“We may have a lot of intelligence reports but we also need a system that contains profiles of suspected terrorists, or groups suspected to be assisting or are sympathetic to such persons,” says Werunga, who also heads the African Centre for Security and Strategic Studies.

This, he says, would hasten police investigation in attacks such as the one that occurred along Moi Avenue last week. The blast, which injured about 30 people, was attributed to a homemade fertiliser-based bomb.

Police have been on the trail of two suspects alleged to have carried out the attack.

While side stepping the issue of just how many suspects are currently being held in connection with the countrywide grenade attacks, Owino says the police have in recent months averted similar attacks.

“It is within the public’s right to know what is affecting the nation, but let us also not be quick to criticise the Government,” he says.

Werunga, however, maintains that it would be difficult for Kenya to win the war against terrorism in the absence of a proper mechanism to profile suspects, which creates a reserve of information that security organs can easily refer to.

Then there is the aspect of putting up well-equipped forensic laboratories for the police, a project punctured by the multi million-dollar Anglo Leasing scandal involving senior government officials.

The National Security Intelligence Service has also been challenged to justify its enhanced allocations — at over Sh10 billion per financial year — vis-à-vis the progress made in boosting national security.

“The Government should tell us why we still don’t have forensic laboratories. Smaller countries like Uganda have them, a factor which enabled them move faster in netting suspects of the 2010 Kampala bombing,” says Werunga.

Other countries on the continent that have similar facilities are South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Ghana.

Owino cites various challenges in the fight against terror and hurdles that may lie in the path of nabbing suspects.

Key among them is the country’s porous borders, particularly in the North Eastern region, lack of technologically advanced satellite equipment that could help track down suspects and outstretched resources.

Last week PM Raila Odinga announced that China has advanced a Sh8.3 billion grant to Kenya for the installation of CCTV surveillance cameras in Nairobi and other major towns to help fight terrorism and other crimes.

Owino also points to the political instability in neighbouring countries such as Somalia, which has seen large numbers of refugees pouring into the country as a huge problem for security organs.

“Our proximity with Somalia, which is known to host Al Qaeda linked cells, is a major challenge. Most of our buildings also need surveillance cameras to enable the police identify suspects.

 But the financial costs of managing these watertight facilities is high, particularly for a developing nation that has many competing needs,” he says.

Some officers within the fore have also blamed provisions within the new Constitution that ‘complicate the arrest of suspects’.

But Lawrence Mute, a Commissioner with the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, discounts this theory. “Even though we have a new Constitution there has been a practice that the police has followed for a long time, which was actually not in accordance with the law,” he says.

According to Mute the police should find ways of engaging with the system instead of finding excuses when they find it difficult to hold suspects. “Under the law, they (police) could still go to court and ask for more time to detain a suspect as they complete their investigation,” he says.

Mute also cites the fact that the country has for the past ten years been unable to pass anti-terrorism legislation as another hurdle.