Anti-terror police arrest two suspects at airport

By James Mbaka

KENYA: Two people with suspect documents were arrested at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport as authorities urged immigration officials to step up vigilance against suspicious travellers.

“We’ve arrested some individuals at the airport for questioning. We ask officers dealing with vital ID documents to be very careful,” the Interior Ministry said in a posting on Twitter Monday.

Officials however did not disclose the identity of the person(s) and the nature of the alleged offence.

Speculation swirled that the issue could be linked to reports of a suspected terrorist whom a witness reported slipped out among victims of the Westgate Mall attack.

Anti-terrorism police reportedly mounted major operations to crackdown on terror suspects and arrested the two suspects allegedly disguised and travelling to Turkey.

Expired passport

Sources said the man produced an expired passport to the immigration officials and after scrutiny they established that it was not his own prompting a swift intervention from anti-terror police officers who were on the lookout at the airport.

Police are said to have also temporarily impounded a Mombasa-bound bus along the Haile Selassie Avenue after a tip off that there were suspicious people on it. Nevertheless the bus was later released and nobody was arrested.