Cell phone linked to Kenyan trio

Suspects’ lawyer and a human rights activist condemn their arrest and hand-over to Ugandan authorities

A cell phone suspected to have been left behind by the people who masterminded the Kampala blasts led detectives to the three Kenyans arraigned in court on Friday.

Intelligence sources in Uganda said an unexploded bomb left behind by the terrorists at a night spot in Makindye division helped them to piece together evidence that led to the arrest of Kenyans Idris Magondu, 42, Hussein Hassan Agade, 27, and Mohammed Aden Addow, 25.

The trio was charged with 76 counts of murder. The three men did not enter a plea.

Condemned arrest

But, speaking in Nairobi on Saturday, the suspects’ lawyer Mbugua Mureithi and human rights activist and chair of the Kenya Muslim Human Rights Forum Al Amin Kimathi condemned the arrest and handing over of the trio to Ugandan authorities.

They said Mr Magondu and Mr Agade were part-time preachers in Nairobi.

Mr Mureithi accused Kenyan authorities of breaching the law in handing the suspects over to Ugandan authorities. Mr Mureithi said he has filed an application to have Kenyan police compelled to produce the suspects in court on Monday.

“We shall be in court Monday because, as far as I am concerned, my clients were kidnapped by a government that does not want to follow the judicial process,” he told the Sunday Nation on the phone on Saturday.

He said that since they were arrested on Monday, July 22, neither their families nor their lawyers had contacted them directly.

Are depressed

“The families are depressed after receiving nothing but mistreatment from the government,” he said.

Mr Kimathi also described the handing over of the suspects to Ugandan authorities as illegal.

Seventy-six people died and many others were injured in explosions at the Kyadondo Rugby Club and the Ethiopian Village Restaurant. The victims of the blasts were football fans watching the World Cup final between Spain and The Netherlands on the night of Sunday July 11.

The militant Somali group al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the bombings.

The Uganda police were backed up in their investigations by detectives from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation who offered technical assistance.

The suspicions

Mr Magondu, Mr Agade and Mr Addow were arrested in Kenya after the Ugandan police notified their Kenyan counterparts of their suspicion that the trio had made calls to a number in Uganda.

A detective told the Sunday Nation they had evidence that the trio had earlier made “several trips between Kampala and Nairobi by bus”.

“We have their original bus tickets,” the officer said.

Twenty-seven Ugandan nationals have also been arrested for allegedly hosting terror suspects. Police sources said some al-Shabaab agents are still hiding in Uganda and have issued threats to attack some places.