Terror alert: Al Shabaab planning another attack on Kenya
Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet has issued a terror alert saying Al Shabaab militants are preparing to carry out attacks in Nairobi and other parts of the country.
“Available information indicates they could be mobilizing in Somalia and may take advantage of the rainy season to infiltrate our borders and stage attacks in North Eastern and Coast regions as well as in Nairobi,” Boinnet said in a statement.
The IG however said security agencies are on high alert and appealed to the public to provide information that would forestall the planned attacks.
“The terror threats are still alive and the Al Shabaab and their sympathizers are keen to do us harm. Security agencies have been hard at work to safeguard our country and we therefore call upon the public to exercise extra caution at all times and promptly report anything that is out of the ordinary,” he said.
The police chief added that security would be beefed up at public places like shopping malls, bus stations, entertainment joints, places of worship and schools.
“We call upon members of the public to cooperate with security agencies and private guards especially when they are carrying out searches,” Mr Boinnet added.
SUICIDE BOMBER
On Monday, police released photographs of five Kenyans, among them a suspected female suicide bomber and her husband, who are wanted for links with Al Shabaab.
The five are in Al Shabaab camps in Somalia but intelligence reports have revealed they are planning to sneak into Kenya to carry out attacks.
Separately, Police have arrested two terrorists from Tanzania in the ongoing operation Linda Boni. One of the two, Mashuud Bashir Hamisi sneaked back to Kenya after he was deported in January last year.
“Mashuud travelled from Tanzania using the sea route to evade detection from the Kenyan Police as he had been previously deported from Kenya by the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU),” a police report states.
When he was initially arrested, Mashuud was charged at a court in Garsen with being in the country illegally.
Also arrested is Twaha Rashid Hiyal, 20, from Bagamoyo who was nabbed in Lamu as he reportedly attempted to cross the border to Somalia.
“The arrest of these two Tanzanian nationals is evidence that the on-going operation is making headway in preventing youth not only from Kenya but also neighboring countries from reaching Somalia to join Al Shabaab,” the police report said.
