Kenyan police arrest man en-route to Somalia

By Fauxile Kibet

Kenyan police have detained a man in Mandera who was asking for directions to Somalia on suspicion that he was on his way to join the Al-Shabaab terror group.

The man, 53, identified as Mr Backstone Agero, according to Kenyan Anti-Terror Police Unit (ATPU) is suspected to be an Al-Shabaab spy and will be detained for seven days as police conduct investigations to determine his intentions.

Police say that the man alighted from a bus in Madera town on March 6 at around 10 pm and inquired for directions to Somalia, raising suspicion.

“The suspect came into Mandera from Garissa aboard a Tawakal company bus and immediately after alighting he inquired for directions to Somalia,” reads an affidavit sworn by an ATPU officer at a Madera court.

It adds, “He did not have a mobile phone which we suspected he hid or in order to hide his movements from security agencies. But he had a notebook with names of Kenyan towns.”

However, Mr Agero told the court that he was a carpenter and had been invited to Mandera by a friend to join them in construction works

“I was asking for a place to sleep and not the direction to Somalia because we arrived in town at night and I was new here,” he said.

But he could not explain why he had a note book with names of Kenyan towns and places he has visited.