Police ‘freed’ terror suspects

A senior policeman released some of the terror suspects arrested during an operation on Saturday night.

About 169 suspects had been arrested during an operation dubbed “Fagia” that followed a Saturday night explosive attack in Eastleigh, Nairobi. The area MP was among the injured.

But 41 of the suspects were later released by the officer at the Shauri Moyo police station under mysterious circumstances.

A senior GSU officer got the information that they had been released and inquired. Senior officers visited the station and while there, one of the suspects who had been released visited the station to collect some items he had left behind. He was re-arrested and upon interrogation, revealed that they had been told to give out money for them to be released.

The officer is alleged to have released the suspects who had earlier been booked in custody by a senior officer from the General Service Unit (GSU) according to OB 14/8/12/2012. However, the names never appeared in the station’s cell register as required by law.

Nairobi PPO Moses Ombati has said that an inquiry into the incident, headed by the Kayole CID boss, has been launched and the officers will be taken to court as soon as the investigations are completed. On Sunday, the Shauri Moyo police station commander reported to the police headquarters that 41 of the 169 suspects were missing from the police custody.

The report of the missing prisoners was booked in the Occurrence Book number 27/9/12/2012, but was later found out to have been a cover-up. When Nation visited on Wednesday, everything was intact and there were no signs of break-out.

Initial investigations showed some of the arrested were terror suspects who sneaked into Nairobi from refugee camps while others had come directly from Somali.