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Kenya

Pangani blast suspect identified, photo circulated

Six people were killed and 30 others injured in the attack/CFM

Six people were killed and 30 others injured in the attack/CFM

NAIROBI, Kenya Dec 15 – Police on Sunday circulated a photograph of a man identified as Hussein Nur Mohammed who is wanted over the Pangani matatu explosion that occurred on Saturday, killing six people.

Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo told journalists they have already obtained a warrant of arrest for the suspect who had jumped bail on a previous terror charge.

“The man was facing a terror related charge, and we are now looking for him over the Pangani incident,” he told a press conference in his office late Sunday.

Kimaiyo said they have sufficient evidence to suggest that the 21-year-old is linked to Saturday’s attack.

“We have evidence to suggest he has something to do with this attack, and we are appealing for information from the public to help get him,” he said, adding “the suspect had jumped bail on a previous terror charge.”

He did not however, give details of the terror charge the suspect was facing.

He also confirmed that they already have another suspect in custody, over the incident blamed on an Improvised Explosive Device (IED).

In future, he asked the courts to seriously weigh the nature of the offence committed when exercising their discretion to release suspects facing serious charges on bail.

“It’s very painful. This man was in our custody and while he’s out on bond he goes on to commit many more atrocities, the terms of his release the least of his concern,” Kimaiyo lamented.

The death toll from Saturday’s matatu explosion in Pangani rose to six on Sunday, after two of the blast casualties succumbed to injuries in hospital.

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Nairobi police chief, Benson Kibue, told Capital FM News, that 30 others were still admitted, both at the Kenyatta National Hospital and at the Guru Nanak Hospital.

“We have lost two of the victims in hospital where about 30 others are still admitted,” Kibue said. “We now have six people dead out of that incident.”

He said detectives were interrogating a suspect picked up from the scene soon after the incident, although he could not immediately link him directly to the blast.

“We are still investigating and we have one suspect who was arrested soon after the incident. He is assisting us in the investigations,” Kibue said of the blast blamed on an Improvised Explosive Devise (IED).

The matatu was headed to town from Eastleigh when the explosion went off at about 5.45 pm, causing an accident pile-up of six vehicles which rammed on one another after the explosion went off.

An emergency official who helped take victims out of the matatu, after the blast, said ten of them were in a critical condition when they pulled out.

Kenya has suffered similar attacks in the past, since 2011 when Kenya sent its military to Somalia to pursue Al Shabaab attackers, mainly grenades thrown at bars or restaurants in Eastleigh, parts of Mombasa and key border towns of Wajir and Mandera.

On Friday night, one person was killed and three others wounded after twin blasts went off in Wajir town, in what was blamed on Al Shabaab attackers or their sympathizers.

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