30 June 2003
Nairobi — Police yesterday arrested a suspected terrorist in a swift and dramatic operation in Garissa Town.
The 24-year-old storekeeper was seized after a combined force of anti-terrorist, regular and Administration police sealed off a residential area, jumped over a perimeter fence and searched at least eight houses.
The arrest came as Kanu joined forces with Muslim leaders to launch a scathing attack on the Narc Government for the way it had handled the anti-terrorism campaign.
The official Opposition party declared that it would not support the anti-terrorism Bill when it is brought to Parliament.
During a meeting at the Tononoka grounds in Mombasa, more than 25 Kanu MPs, led Mr Uhuru Kenyatta, joined Islamic preachers and clergymen in declaring that they would reject the Bill as it violated the rights of Kenyan Muslims.
None of the local Narc MPs was present at the meeting.
In the Garissa incident, North Eastern and Eastern provincial anti-terrorism boss Boniface Mwaniki said police were investigating reports that the suspect had received military training in Pakistan.
A number of documents and other items were confiscated from the room.
A source who sought anonymity said the storekeeper, who police describe as an engineer, was born in Kenya and left the country after his parents died. He returned two years ago and holds a passport issued through the Kenyan embassy in Pakistan.
Islamic leaders camped at the police station appealing for his release. Speaking in Mombasa, Mr Kenyatta said terrorism knew no religious boundaries and it was, therefore, unfair for the Government to appear to be targeting only one religion.
Mr Nick Salat of Bomet claimed that a suspect had been blindfolded and tortured with electric shocks before being taken to Nairobi.
"If this Government doesn't stop this, then it should be ready for war," he told a charged crowd.
The Muslim leaders, led by the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya secretary-general Sheikh Mohammed Dor, and the chairman of unregistered Islamic Party of Kenya Sheikh Mohammed Khalifa, threatened to form their own political party.
Mr Khalifa claimed that President Kibaki had turned down several requests for a meeting with Muslim leaders. They vowed to hold demonstrations countrywide to make the Government listen.
But they told Mr Kenyatta to his face that they would not join Kanu but instead cooperate with the party.
Dr Abdullahi Ali (Isiolo South) attacked local MPs for remaining quiet as their constituents were harassed by security forces in the guise of looking for terrorists.
Others who spoke were Mr Gideon Moi (Baringo Central), Mr Yusuf Haji (Ijara), Mr William Ruto (Eldoret North), Mr Justin Muturi (Siakago), Mr Joseph Korir (Mogotio) and Mr John Serut (Mt Elgon).
Others were Dr Bonaya Godana (North Horr), Dr Sammy Ruto (Kipkelion), Mr Marsden Madoka (Mwatate), Mr Fahim Twaha (Lamu West) and Mr Billow Kerrow (Mandera Central). Former Cabinet ministers Sharrif Nassir and Katana Ngala also addressed the meeting.
Earlier, 30 Muslim MPs from the Coast, Eastern and North Eastern provinces declared at a fund-raising meeting in Nairobi that the Government had surrendered sovereignty to the US with the proposed anti-terrorism laws.
They said the wave of arrests and police searches of Muslim institutions in North Eastern and Coast provinces violated their civil rights as persons and their religion in general.
Led by Mr Maalim Mohamed (Dujis), Mr Mohamed Mohamud (Wajir East) and Mr Billow, they announced a series of protest actions starting with the Tononoka meeting.
The developments came against a backdrop of significant aid pledges by the US to help Kenya fight terrorism. Kenya, National Security minister Chris Murungaru, who arrived from the US in the morning, said would get the biggest share of Sh7.5 billion pledged by the US to anti-terrorist efforts in East Africa and the Horn.
Dr Murungaru said Kenya was considered a central player in the fight against terrorism in eastern Africa.
He had taken a special message form President Kibaki to US President Bush, appealing for $372 million (Sh28 billion) in emergency aid. But the US only gave $100 million (Sh7.5 billion) to be shared among Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Djibouti.
The funds will be used to equip and train security personnel, provide safety at airports and other points of entry and strengthen the Immigration Department.
Dr Murungaru called on Kenyans, and MPs in particular, to support the anti-terrorism Bill, which has been a sore issue with Muslims since it was mooted.
"Kenya's Parliament has a moral duty to support and pass the Anti-Terrorism Bill, which will put in place a legal framework for addressing terrorism-related offences," Dr Murungaru said.
He denied allegations that the US was forcing Kenya to pass the Bill.
Dr Murungaru said Kenya's war against terrorism would only be won "by accepting the problem exists . . . we have to find a solution to it so that victory is ours and not the terrorists."
He announced that the ban of flights to and from Somalia would be reviewed after thorough assessment and explained that it was a measure taken to deal with a "specific serious security threat".
During his US visit, he held talks with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the State Department and the Pentagon, the Defence Department. In the UK he met top government officials.
Justice and Constitutional Affairs assistant minister Robinson Njeru Githae denied that the anti-terrorism Bill was a replica of the US Patriot Act.
"We have not to reinvented the wheel. What we have done is to pick the best of Suppression of Terrorism Act in the Commonwealth countries and given it a Kenyan outlook," Mr Githae said.
His ministry had also scrutinised the Bill's provisions and concluded that it did not contravene the Constitution.
"The Bill may be taking away a few fundamental rights of Kenyans and this may be justified by the very nature of terrorism, which is basically done in secret and by unknown people who do not advertise themselves," he told the Nation.
Elsewhere, Muslims asked Parliament to reject the Bill, saying it would trample on human rights.
"It will not only affect MPs and their families, but the rights of Kenyans will be taken away," said the chairman of the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims, Prof A. H. el-Busaidy.
"We are not saying this because we are Muslims or because it targets our religion alone, but it gives away the country's sovereignty," he claimed.
The Bill has been faulted by Law Society of Kenya chairman Ahmednassir Abdullahi and Kenya Human Rights Commission chairman Makau Mutua, among other lawyers, who argue that it proposes to infringe on civil liberties.
But Supkem said it was ready to cooperate with the government in combating terrorism.
Reports by Issa Hussein, David Mugonyi, Adan Mohamed, Patrick Mathangani and Onesmus Kilonzo
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