NAIROBI, Kenya Sep 2 – Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi has unmasked key influential businessmen and leaders in northern Kenya, accused of supporting or funding terrorism.
Matiangi listed nine individuals he said are responsible in financing operations of the Somalia-based Al Shabaab that has links with global terror network, Al-Qaeda.
“I hereby order the freezing of funds and property of the following individuals and entities,” Matiangi said in a statement listing Halima Adan Ali, Waleed Ahmed Zein, Sheikh Guyo Gorsa Boru, Mohammed Abdi Ali (Abu Fidhaa), Nuseiba Mohammed Haji, Abdimajit Adan Hassan, Mohamed Ali Abdi, Muktar Ibrahim Ali and Mire Abdullahi Elmi.
No further details were given about the individuals named or the kind of business they do, but security sources said most of them are influential business figures from the north.
Matiangi said he acted pursuant to provisions of Regulation 11 (1) of the Prevention of Terrorism-POTA, Implementation of the United Nations Security Council Resolutions on Suppression of Terrorism) Regulations 2013 and other counterterrorism laws.
“Terrorism knows no bounds. We shall neither surrender into the hands of terrorism nor play the narrative propounded by terrorists of discrimination along ethnic and religious lines in the war,” he said in a statement released on Wednesday.
Kenya has suffered the wrath of Al Shabaab in several attacks along the border towns of Garissa, Mandera and Lamu where they target security forces and in the capital Nairobi and the coastal town of Mombasa.
In all the attacks, hundreds of people have been killed, many injured and property damaged even as they abduct people, including foreigners from Kenya for ransom.
“Our focus and unrelenting resolve to pursue and confront these threats head on remains and we will not hesitate to subject any individual or entity seeking to harm our people to the full force of the law,” Matiangi said.
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