MANDERA, Kenya, Nov 10 – At an unspecified date last month, Paul Bachia Wangui alias Mohamed left Laikipia town dressed in the blue driver’s uniform with an intention of travelling to Mandera.
He boarded a public service vehicle that dropped in Isiolo town before jumping into another that took him to Moyale.
From Moyale, he connected to Mandera arriving in the border town on October 16, in the border town.
Throughout this journey, Wangui never paid a single cent for transport expenses since the blue uniform simply identified him to the public service vehicles’ operators as one of them.
In this industry, once you are dressed in the official blue uniform for the driver or the maroon shirts and trousers for the conductors then you can easily hitch a lift on any public service vehicle.
Wangui quickly walked to Mosque the following day after arriving in Mandera town and converted to Islam.
It remained unclear where stayed for five days before police officers manning the Kenya-Somalia border arrested him as he wandered along the borderline on October 21.
On October 24, the Anti-Terror Police Unit (ATPU) in Mandera produced Wangui at Mandera Law Courts under a miscellaneous application.
Mr Mukabi Kimani, Mandera Senior Resident Magistrate allowed the ATPU to hold the suspect for fourteen days and investigate his mission to travel to Mandera and plan to sneak into Somalia.
In the application, the ATPU said Wangui was a suspected Alshabaab spy who was on a mission to collect information in Mandera and the North Eastern Region for furtherance of terror activities.
Upon arrest, Wangui was found in possession of a mobile phone and five sim cards, according to the police.
Wangui hails from Maguyu in Ndaragwa in Nyandarua county.
According to the police, Wangui is originally from Nyeri county, an area that remains marked in security circles as a terrorist radicalization zone and home to Salim Gichunge, the mastermind of the January 2019 Dusit D2 Hotel attack.
In the fourteen days granted, ATPU needed to establish if Wangui was in way linked to the terror activities in Nyeri county and if he is in communication with terror cells in Somalia.
On Tuesday, Mr Micheal Lokitam, the state prosecutor, told the court that investigations had been completed and the police were charging Wangui with attempting to depart the country through an illegal point.
Mr Lokitam did not reveal to the court the findings of the investigations but requested for the closure of the miscellaneous file.
Wangui denied the offence and was released on a bond of Sh100,000 with a surety of a similar amount by Mr Peter Wasike, the Mandera Senior Resident Magistrate.
Wangui said he had travelled to Mandera in search of a driving job and that he was arrested by security officers while in a restaurant having a meal.
Despite his claim of being a driver, he was not in possession of a driving licence.
The case will be mentioned on November 22, and heard on December 1.
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