Now nuns’ captors demand ransom

By David Ochami and Cyrus Ombati

The militia holding two Italian nuns in Somalia have started negotiating for ransom with Kenyan elders.

Sources said the captors have said they can only release the women and a driver if ransom is paid.

It is not clear how much money they have demanded.

The nuns were kidnapped by militiamen last week in El Wak town on Kenya’s border with Somalia and driven in stolen vehicles to the war-torn nation.

North Eastern PC Josephat Maingi said elders negotiating in Kenya and Somalia had confirmed that the nuns are alive.

• .

  Keep Reading

• 
  Mombasa youthful lawyer Lumatete and Kandu brave heavy rains to shine at Nyali
• 
  Gachagua's defence raises questions on late brother's Will
• 
  Gachagua: A most successful classmate of UoN class
• 
  Gachagua casts lone shadow as Embu leaders skip church event

A senior official in the team, who asked not to be identified, last evening said he had "received information that there are talks going on over the ransom to be paid to the kidnappers".

But the official could not establish if the Catholic order to which the nuns belong or the Italian Embassy in Nairobi were involved in the ransom talks.

On Thursday, the PC acknowledged that unidentified elders from Kenya and Somalia were still negotiating the nuns’ release but denied knowledge of the demand for ransom.

"We have received information that the nuns are still alive somewhere in Mogadishu," said the PC.

He defended the night curfew in El Wak and Mandera town amid a huge troop deployment.

Meanwhile, police and Army have begun searching houses and demanding identity papers from residents in the deserted El Wak town.

But the PC denied claims that worshippers had been flushed out of mosques.

He, however, conceded that residents who had fled the forces’ deployment were reluctant to return despite appeals on local FM radio.

"Asking for identification papers is standard procedure even in Nairobi," said the PC.

He went on: "We do not violate anybody’s rights during security operations. There is very little we can do if those who fled have refused to return."

He claimed most residents fled upon false rumours that they would be brutalized. Reports say most of El Wak’s residents had fled to Shimbir Fatuma, Kutulo and Takaba townships.