Wife of Kampala bomb suspect tells of his arrest

• Twenty police officers wearing hoods ransack Kawangware home before driving off with husband

More than 20 police officers wearing hoods ransacked her home in Kawangware at about 1.30am.

They then handcuffed and blindfolded her husband before driving off with him.

The man they took away in connection to the July 11 bombing in Uganda last month was Mr Idris Magondu, 42. He was arrested alongside two other Kenyans — Hussein Hassan Agade, 27, and Mohamed Aden Addow, 25. They would later be charged with 76 counts of murder, even as they did not enter a plea.

Depressing operation

Ms Saida Rosemary, Mr Magondu’s wife, termed the arrest operation “depressing”, adding that her husband was innocent and could not have participated in the bombings.

“On the day of the Ugandan bombings, we went for shopping at Eastleigh with my husband before we returned to the house,” Ms Rosemary told journalists.

“The landlord sent us a message thinking we had been attacked. Suddenly, there were loud bangs demanding we open the door.”

According to Ms Rosemary, her husband whom she says worked as a driver and preached part-time, was arrested by more than 20 police officers wearing balaclava helmets, while armed with automatic weapons.

In the course of arresting her husband, she says, the policemen ransacked the house, destroying household items, including sofa seats, ceiling boards and food.

The police officers, Ms Rosemary adds, confiscated all her personal belongings including her national identity card, family photo album and mobile telephone. They did not write an inventory of the items they had seized and confiscated.

After handcuffing her husband and blindfolding him, she says, the hooded men drove away with him, arrogantly telling her that she would never see him again and that she should start looking for another man.

The following day, she said, she searched for him at various police stations, in vain. On July 27, Ms Rosemary says, she was advised by some of her friends to look for him at the Kileleshwa Police Station.

At least 76 people died in Kampala, on July 11, after bombs went off at two venues where soccer fans were watching the World Cup final game between Spain and the Netherlands.

Ms Rosemary describes her husband as a “peaceful, God-fearing and law-abiding citizen”.

Kenya Muslim Human Rights Forum chairperson Al Amin Kimanthi on Saturday accused Kenyan authorities of breaching the law and handing the suspect over to Uganda.