Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Kenyan government has sacked 11 police officers for allowing suspected terrorists to travel from northern Kenya to Nairobi with 10 kg dangerous
explosives.
Internal Security Minister Katoo Ole Metito told journalists in Nairobi that the police commander who authorized the escort of two suspects from Garissa and 10 junior
officers will appear in court to answer charges of endangering the lives of Kenyans."The officers allowed the suspects to pass with their dangerous cargo after receiving a
bribe. We will sack those officers who are not doing their duty diligently and reward those who perform their work patriotically," Metito said. "Consequently, I have requested
the Police Commissioner to promote to the next rank the officers who intercepted the explosive and arrested the terrorists."
Metito cautioned police officers manning the country's borders and security checks on the roads to be patriotic and vigilant and not fall to temptation from criminal elements
and allow them through the security checks. The suspects allowed safe passage by the officers on duty at Tana Bridge on Sept. 28 but were later arrested after their bus was
intercepted at Matuu along the Garissa-Nairobi road in Easter Kenya. During the operation, eight Somali nationals were arrested and police recovered dangerous explosive
substance weighing 10 kilograms following a tip off from members of the public. He said bomb experts have detonated the explosives which had been stashed in a black bag.
The explosives could flatten at least a six-storey building according to the experts.
The arrests come amid heightened security in across the East African nation including border or entry points after Somali insurgents have abandoned their key base in
Kismayo and it was not know where they were headed to. The port city of Kismayo, Al-Shabaab's only remaining stronghold was captured by Kenyan soldiers and other allied
forces on Friday after a spirited gunfire on Sept. 28. The militant group has also come under pressure from Uganda, Burundi and Sierra Leone soldiers who recently pushed
out them out of the outskirts of Somali capital Mogadishu and other key regions they used to control 2 years ago.
Meanwhile, the minister said the government will deal firmly with organized criminal groups and warned the Mombasa Republican Council (MRC) that the government will
apply unspecified action directed towards it in the next few days. The group has been agitating for secession and has vowed that no elections will take place in the Coast
region where they are based, saying that they are not Kenyans. On Thursday members of the group attacked and injured Kenya's Minister for Fisheries, Amason Kingi during a
political rally he was addressing in the coastal town of Mtwapa and killed his bodyguard and three others while armed with machetes. "The question of secession is not worth
talking about because it is inapplicable. The so called grievances like lack of title deeds and unemployment are not unique to the region since they affect all Kenyans and
therefore MRC should not hide behind the grumbles to carry out their criminal acts," Metito said. He said Kenyans in the region are not supportive of the group's actions as is
evident from the previous lynching of 11 of its members and the lynching of three others during the Thursday incident.
While from Kinshasa,the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has helped over 25,000 Congolese refugees to return to their country since the beginning of the voluntary repatriation operation in the month of May, the UN said in a statement released on Thursday in Kinshasa.
The refugees were living in Likouala Department in the neighboring Republic of Congo."Until today, over 25,600 Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) refugees have
returned through organized or individual convoys to Dongo and Libenge territories in Equateur province," the UNHCR statement indicated. The UNHCR hopes to have
repatriated 49,000 Congolese refugees to Equateur province by the end of this year. (Xinhua)
No comments:
Post a Comment