Police arrest two Al Shabaab suspects in foiled kidnapping

Two Al Shabaab suspects have been arrested in foiled kidnapping in Mandera County, where five chiefs and a child were recently kidnapped by the insurgents.

One of the suspects identified as Isaac Abdi Mohamed alias Kharan Abdi, aged 29, and believed to be a Somali national recently sneaked into the country where he fraudulently acquired a Kenyan national identity card.

The plan was to allegedly abduct Chinese nationals working at a major construction site within Mandera town before the plot was thwarted by Anti-Terror Police Unit (APTU) officers.

Abdi was to allegedly link up with a Kenyan employed to chauffeur the Chinese.

The plan was that the driver was to be paid Sh100,000 in order to deliver the Chinese into the trap where Abdi would allegedly take over the abductees and drive them to El-Ade in Somalia at a fee of Sh300,000.

Upon interrogation, Abdi revealed that he was working closely with Noor Yakub Ali, a Kenyan aged 29  who was traced and arrested within Metameta in Mandera town.

Mandera County Criminal Investigations Officer (CCIO) Pius Gitari, said the suspects were arrested on Tuesday morning.

“They are being grilled before subsequent and appropriate action is taken,” Gitari told The Standard.

The Mandera Water and Sewerage project launched in 2018, is being implemented by a Chinese company where the targeted foreigners work.

Mandera has been hardest hit by Al Shabaab militants who have been orchestrating attacks and carrying out abductions since Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) made an incursion into Somalia in pursuit of the insurgents.

On April 12, 2029, suspected Al-Shabaab militants kidnapped two Cuban doctors working in Mandera and took them to Somalia.

The two, Dr. Assel Herrera Correa and Dr. Landy Rodriguez Hernandez were on their way to their work when they were waylaid and bundled into a vehicle that sped off towards Somalia.

Their whereabouts remain unknown.

Police officer Mutundo Kitambo attached to the two doctors was killed while his colleague escaped unhurt.

Issack Ibrein Robow, the driver assigned to the Cuban doctor, was charged with terrorism and sentenced to life imprisonment.

The latest incident comes about two weeks after the militants abducted chiefs and a child hours ahead of President William Ruto' tour of the county.

Close family members of the five chiefs have since confirmed that their kinsmen are being held separately in the Jilib area in Somalia.

Clan elders from both sides of the border are negotiating for the safe release of the five chiefs and child.