NAIROBI, August 12 – Police have denied reports that America’s Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) has been conducting a parallel operation on wanted terror suspect Fazul Abdullah Mohammed at the Coast.
Police Spokesman Erick Kiraithe said Kenya Police were capable of carrying out the operation and denied that they had sought help from the FBI and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
“Kenya police has the capacity to conduct anti-terrorism operations and there are no foreign investigators within the force,” he said.
Kiraithe stated that the Police Commissioner was angered by local media reports that FBI and CIA agents have been carrying out raids at the Coastal region in search of the evasive terrorist – now branded East Africa’s most wanted terror suspect.
Fazul is wanted for the 1998 bombing of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, in which some 240 people were killed and 5,000 others injured.
He was indicted in the Southern District of New York, for his alleged involvement in the twin bombings on August 7, 1998.
The Rewards for Justice Program, United States Department of State, is offering a reward of up to $5 million (Sh325 million) for information leading directly to the apprehension or conviction of the suspect.
Fazul evaded arrest for the fourth time two weeks ago, when Anti-terrorism Police Unit (ATPU) officers raided a house in Malindi.
A couple and their son who were said to have been with him before he fled were arrested and have since appeared in court charged with harbouring an international terror suspect.
Mahfudh Ashur Hemed, his wife Luftiya Abubakar Bashrahil and their son Ibrahim Mahfudh Ashur were freed on Monday on a bond of Sh1 million each after spending a week at the Shimo La Tewa Remand Prison.
An operation to flush out the terror suspect has been going on at the Coastal town.
“It is a just a question of time and we will be having Fazul answering for his criminal offences,” Kiraithe said at a press conference on Tuesday.
Police have so far questioned some eleven people said to have close links with the terror suspect.
Seven of them were arrested and detained for questioning but have since been released.
Four others are still being held.
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