Police allowed to hold Pakistani man in suspected terror spying case

Pakistan citizen Hanif Mohamad when he appeared in an Eldoret court on Tuesday in connection with terrorism

Pakistan citizen Hanif Mohamad when he appeared in an Eldoret Court on Tuesday August 2, 2022 in connection with terrorism.

Photo credit: Titus Ominde | Nation Media Group

An Eldoret court has allowed the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU) to hold for 14 more days a Pakistani man suspected of being a terrorist spy.

Eldoret Principal Magistrate Onkoba Mogire on Tuesday directed police to detain Hanif Mohamad pending investigations.

Investigating officer Phanuel Kaaria of the ATPU told the court that the suspect was arrested by Kiambaa police officers on July 30 following a tip-off from members of the public who were suspicious about his presence at a local restaurant.

In a sworn affidavit, Mr Kaaria told the court that the suspect was found with a Pakistani passport stamped with an ordinary Ugandan visa.

A further search yielded another Pakistani passport in different names.

The man’s travel documents showed that he had visited Mali, Senegal, Uganda and other countries before coming to Kenya for reasons he had not revealed.

The police said the suspect was staying at a guest house in the Eastleigh area of Eldoret with another foreigner whose details were not yet known.

The man had declined to tell the police why he was in Kenya.

Detectives also seized a mobile phone worth Sh150,000 that was to be forwarded to an ATPU lab in Nairobi for forensic analysis.

Responding to the police request to detain him for 14 more days, he told the court he wanted to return to Pakistan.

“I came to Kenya one month ago. Police have taken my money together with my passport. I want to go back to Pakistan,” he told the court.

Most of the documents confiscated from the suspect were questionable, State Counsel Patricia Kirui told the court. She said he would need to be interviewed by officers from the National Intelligence Service, Kenya Defence Forces Intelligence Services, Interpol and other agencies.

“Due to the magnitude of this matter, I request the court to grant the investigating officer the requested time to complete their investigations,” Ms Kirui told the court.

The court directed the suspect to be detained at the Eldoret Central Police Station for 14 days.

The matter will be mentioned on August 15.