Kenya quizzes 40
2003-06-23 12:47
Nairobi - Kenyan authorities were on Monday questioning at least 40 people, suspected of having links to extremist groups and arrested in a massive swoop at the weekend, the government said.
"We are investigating them to see if they have any links to terrorism," Justice Assistant Minister Robinson Githae said by telephone.
Githae said more than 100 people from Eastleigh, the capital's crime-prone northeastern surburb, inhabited mainly by Kenyan Somalis and refugees from war-torn Somalia, were arrested in the swoop.
"Several other people arrested will also explain why they are in the country illegally," he said.
The swoop, supervised by Kenyan paramilitary General Service Unit (GSU) officers, took place a day after the United States closed its embassy in Nairobi, citing a "possible, imminent" threat of attacks by extremists.
"We shall focus on terrorism when investigating these people," a police officer who requested anonymity said.
"But above that, we shall dig into their personal lives and establish whether they have been involved in other crimes, like being in the country illegally," he said.
Senior police commander Solomon Makau said that police mounted a massive raid in Eastleigh after intelligence reports indicated that the dusty neighbourhood might be offering a safe haven to extremists.
US ambassador to Kenya Johnny Carson complained last week that "not a single person who has hosted extremists here has been arrested since 1998," when a car bomb ripped through the US embassy building, killing 213 people, 12 of them Americans.
Most of the people arrested at the weekend are refugees who fled factional wars in Somalia, which the United States has said is "a terrorist den" due to an absence of a recognised government since the overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in January 1991.