Police arrest Al-Shabaab militant in border ambush
Mr Ahmed Khaled Andreas Martin Muller, a terror suspect, is said to have sneaked into Uganda after the Nairobi blast last week. Police say he could be travelling with his wife and daughter. Photo/COURTESY
Uganda has arrested a man believed to be a member of Al-Shabaab who was part of a cell planning terror attacks in Nairobi and Kampala.
The suspect, identified only as Hussein, was seized as he tried to sneak into Kenya at the Busia border crossing, police spokesperson Judith Nabakooba said. Read (Police trailed terror suspects before Nairobi blast)
However, Ms Nabakooba could not provide details about the suspect, saying she was yet to get briefing from the Counter Terrorism Police head, Mr John Ndingutse.
By press time it could not be established whether Hussein is linked to the attack in Nairobi last week in which one person was killed and 35 others injured.
On Sunday, the Uganda Police mounted roadblocks in Mpigi district, 30 kilometres east of Kampala after a tip-off that four suspicious men in a dark grey vehicle were in the area. Police failed to track the vehicle.
Ms Nabakooba said on Monday that the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) that includes operatives from the Ugandan military intelligence, police internal and external security organisations were jointly hunting for three other terror suspects who sneaked into Uganda from Kenya last week.
Photograph of suspect
A photograph of one of the suspects was released. The men are believed to be linked to Al-Qaeda but are in the region to reinforce Al-Shabaab, the Somali militant group.
One of the suspects, Ahmed Khaled alias Andreas Martin Muller, according to the Uganda counterterrorism police, is suspected to be travelling with his 33-year-old wife, Kriya Mohamed Hafos Adem, a Somali born in Eritrea and their six-year-old daughter.
The other is reportedly travelling under the names Emrah Erdogan alias Imraan Al-Kurdy Alias Salahaddin Al-Kurdy.
Whereas Muller is German, Al-Kurdy, 24 ,is a German of Turkish origin.
Last week, the Uganda police chief, Lieutenant General Kale Kayihura, said another terrorism suspect had sneaked into Uganda on a bus from Nairobi.
The suspect boarded the bus at Limuru.
Concealed in tyre
Meanwhile, a bomb was on Monday found planted near the Dadaab police station.
It was concealed in a tyre and buried about 10 metres from where the station’s road block is normally erected.
Police also found a Nokia mobile phone suspected to have been set to detonate the bomb. The bomb was later detonated by experts in a controlled explosion.
In Nairobi, police arrested two men and recovered four firearms and 18 rounds of ammunition in Kawangware.
The officers from Kamitha Police Post were on patrol within Kawangware’s Congo area when they stormed a house full of young men.
One of them fired at the officers as the others escaped leaving behind the firearms, according to Dagoreti police boss Mathew Gwiyo.
Police are also trying to establish the motive behind the killing of a secondary school teacher in Nairobi’s Waithaka area on Sunday night.
The PCEA Muhu secondary school teacher was allegedly shot by two men at 10pm.
They shot him dead and walked away without stealing anything from him.
