A Garissa court yesterday acquitted two foreign nationals who were arrested in Hagadera refugee camp, Dadaab sub-county late last month on suspicion of having links with the Somali based Al-Shabaab terror group.
The duo Sulub Warfa from New Zealand but of Somali origin and Sakawedin Abdullahi, an Ethiopian were held for 10 days by the anti-terror police who had requested the court last week to allow them authenticate their travel documents.
According to the prosecution, the investigating officers established that the duo’s passports were valid and that they entered the country legally.
While releasing the two, Chief Magistrate Cosmas Maundu said the two had no case to answer and therefore he released unconditionally.
Addressing the press outside the law courts, Sulub accused the arresting officers of not listening to him adding that had they listened to his side of the story, they could not have arrested him in the first place.
“I left Nairobi to Garissa then to Dadajabula on tour of the area but on my way back I was stopped at a road block at Hagarbul. The police officers manning the road block demanded for my driving license which I produced. They then asked for my passport which I also produced,” Sulub said.
“But all over a sudden they told me to pack my vehicle by the roadside and get out of the car as they drew their guns. This really shocked me. They searched my car and wanted to hear nothing from me saying I was a terror suspect,” he added.
Sulub said that branding him a terror suspect without verifying his travelling documents come as a shocker.
He was later handed over to the anti-terror police who have since been holding him.
Sulub demanded for an apology from the police for unlawfully detaining him and linking him to Al-Shabaab terror group.
“This has not only tarnished my name but came as a surprise to my family back home,” he added.
His co-accused declined to talk to the press.
By Jacob Songok
