Anti-terror police obtain order to search house in Mombasa

By WILLIS OKETCH

Anti-terrorism police have obtained an order to search a house with a female occupant in Mombasa, which they believe is laden with explosives.

The court authorised anti-terror police to use “necessary force” to retrieve the explosives.

The order was obtained in Mombasa yesterday after police told a magistrate that detectives believe there are weapons in the house whose exact location is not given in court papers.

“I have reason to believe one Amina Ramadhan Hitoja is connected to the offence I am investigating so I wish to apply for search warrant to access the house,” Inspector Amina Omar Omar told Mombasa Senior Principle Magistrate Richard Odenyo while asking the court to authorise the search.

Police have, however, not disclosed  the nationality of the female owner of the house or the exact crime she is being investigated for.

Meanwhile, investigations by The Standard reveal that the Anti-Terror Police Unit has pre-empted several attacks in the town despite accusations of laxity, especially in the wake of the terrorist attack on Westgate Mall in Nairobi.

 “We have several times arrested terrorist suspects but when taken to court they are acquitted on grounds we do not understand,” said a source who requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the matter.

The source cited a case in 2011, when the police arrested a suspected associate of Harun Fazul and charged him with fraud, but he was acquitted over unknown reasons.

 According to the police, the associate was arrested with a vehicle believed to have been owned by Fazul.

Fake registration

The source said the man was arrested after the police established that he had received several calls from Somalia to go and collect the vehicle from Nairobi, which had a fake registration number.

The police also said a suspected associate of Fazul drove the vehicle to Nairobi from Mandera and handed it over to a businessman in Mombasa.

The source said the vehicle was trailed to Mombasa, where the businessman was arrested after he failed to produce documents to prove the vehicle was his.

Police say the suspect has failed to produce documents to prove ownership of the vehicle and it is still lying at the Coast Provincial Police headquarters.