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Muhoro warns against alarmist terror messages

He warned that spreading falsehood especially to cause terror in the country is a grave crime likely to land culprits in jail/FILE

He warned that spreading falsehood especially to cause terror in the country is a grave crime likely to land culprits in jail/FILE

NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 11 – Director of the Criminal Investigation Department Ndegwa Muhoro on Saturday said reports circulating on social media that terrorists had been arrested at T-Mall were false.

He warned people against distributing alarming messages which he said were raising tension and fears across the country.

In an interview with Capital FM News, Muhoro said investigations had began to identify the source of a message that started circulating over the weekend alleging that police had arrested terrorists at a mall in Nairobi West.

In the message, some of the senders alleged that they witnessed the incident at T-Mall and even saw flying squad officers arresting six terrorists who had maps of the complex.

However, the text messages did not have exact day when the raid allegedly took place with some of them implying that it happened on Thursday while some said it was Friday and others Saturday.

Muhoro confirmed that nothing of the sort had happened as he urged people to refrain from distributing the alarming messages mainly sent via WhatsApp.

“There is nothing like that. We are investigating to get the people behind these messages,” he said.

He warned that spreading falsehood especially to cause terror in the country is a grave crime likely to land culprits in jail.

“People are forgetting that it is a very serious crime in Kenya to send such messages. If any person is doing it as fun is not funny. We will get them,” Muhoro warned as he cited a case in which a student from Egerton University was arrested after posting on social media that the university would be attacked by Al Shabaab.

“Sending messages that are lies and have no basis is a serious crime and we will get those behind it. It is wrong to send messages just because you want to scare people. It is a serious crime and for example if the student from Egerton University is convicted, he could end up in jail for 30 years,” Muhoro warned.

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READ: Two Egerton students arrested for posting terror warnings on Facebook

The messages was circulating as the country is coming terms with the Garissa University College attack that claimed lives of 148 people.

Few days after the attack that took place about a week ago, messages warning of other attacks were also circulated.

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