GARISSA Kenya July 3-The recent arrest of two Tanzania nationals and the ongoing search for an Australian linked to the Al-Shabaab terror group is raising eyebrows on the presence of foreign fighters.
In the recent years, foreign fighters in the Al-Shabaab have largely come from East Africa-primarily Kenya, followed by Tanzania and Uganda- have generally not accrued significant influence within the terror cell.
These foreigners have only occupied rank and file roles in the group’s military wing.
Security agencies in Garissa County are holding two terror suspects arrested over the weekend.
The two are said to be Tanzania nationals who were nabbed while heading to Somalia.
Garissa County Police commander John Sichei said the two were arrested at different points.
“We have two terror suspects in our custody and we are interrogating them. We want to establish if they are linked to the terror group and their motive for travelling towards Somalia,” he said.
On Sunday officers manning the Modika Police Barrier at around 1600hrs arrested Sadam Jafari Kitia, a Tanzanian male adult aged 30 years’ old who was walking on foot heading towards Dadaab direction from Garissa.
The suspect was found in possession of an exercise book which contained hand written directions to Jilib in Somalia.
The suspect told the police during interrogation that he was heading to Jilib to join Al-Shabaab and he was with one Shaffi Mkwatile.
Mkwatile was arrested in the Korakora area on Saturday.
“We are on high alert following spillovers of the militants from Somalia and their plan of planting explosives on the roads, ” Mr Sichei said.
The two suspect were yet to be produced in Court on Monday for police to be allowed to continue holding them for interrogation
In the neighboring Wajir County, police have launched a manhunt for an Australian, Nathan Clavel who sneaked out of a hotel to an unknown destination.
Officers from Wajir East received information that there was a suspicious man at Grand Oasis Hotel in Wajir town.
They visited the hotel and established that two men, Abdulwahid Gadafi Abdulkarim aged 21, from Garissa Township and Nathan Clavel, an Australian national and holder of passport number PB2696205 arrived at the hotel on June 22 at around 5am and booked two separate rooms for two days.
The same day at around 5.45pm, the foreigner left the hotel but never returned.
The officers managed to arrest Abdulwahid while trying to check out of the hotel and upon further investigation it led to arrest of one Mohammed Adan Abdi aged 30 who picked the Australian national outside the hotel using a motor vehicle registration number KCY 148V and took him to Bulla Madina where he handed him over to Salah Sheikh Noor who left with him to unknown destination using motor vehicle registration number KDG 296W.
The foreigners whereabouts are not yet known. The three were arrested and their mobile phones confiscated pending forensic analysis. The two vehicles have also been detained.
On June 24, Mohamed Elmi Hussein the area assistant chief reported that there was a suspicious character spotted within Kubeyadatacha trading centre and could not account for how he came to the area.
Scene was visited and upon interrogation the suspect identified himself as Hassan Aliye Guye, an Ethiopian national.
He had copies of provisional university certificates and transcripts in BA in Accounting and Finance from Didimos Business and Technology College in Shashamane region in Ethiopia.
On June 23, officers from Samburu DCI received information that a Nairobi-bound bus had foreigners. They intercepted the vehicle and arrested nine Eritreans and one Ethiopian.
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