MOMBASA, Sep 22 – A Kenyan court charged a second man on Wednesday after a British holidaymaker was shot dead and his wife kidnapped from a luxury beach resort near the border with Somalia.
Issa Sheikh Saidi was charged with robbery with violence for the killing of David Tebbutt in the early hours of September 11 – and kidnapping with intention to murder the tourist’s wife Judith. He denied all charges.
“The suspect should remain in custody as police carry out more investigation,” said prosecuting lawyer Caleb Mutonyi, speaking at the Hindi Prison Court in Kenya’s Lamu district.
On Monday the court charged fellow Kenyan Ali Babitu Kololo with the same crimes.
But local residents said Kololo, who worked as a night watchman at the remote resort, was forced by the gunmen to show them where the tourists were staying, and claimed he was used by the armed gang and was not part of it.
Both suspects were refused bail and are due to reappear for a hearing on October 25.
The Tebbutts, from the town of Bishop’s Stortford in southeastern England, were the only guests at the Kiwayu Safari Village, just 40 kilometres from the border with conflict-ravaged Somalia.
Judith Tebbutt was reportedly held in Amara in northern Somalia, close to the pirate hub of Harardhere, according to elders in the region, who said on Tuesday that she had since been moved to an unknown location.
A pirate leader said on Tuesday she was suffering from stress and had come down with a fever.
Amara is the village near which Paul and Rachel Chandler, the British couple seized from their yacht in 2009, were held for most of their 13 months in captivity.
Somalia has been lawless for two decades after plunging into a bloody civil war with the 1991 ouster of president Mohamed Siad Barre.
Somali pirates frequently seize crew from merchant ships and pleasure craft in the dangerous waters off the conflict-ravaged Horn of Africa and have taken millions of dollars in ransom for their release.
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