Police issue alert over terror threat on Raila
Police in Nairobi have been put on high alert over an alleged terrorist threat against Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
The Prime Minister is allegedly being targeted because of Kenya’s continued cooperation with the US in the campaign against terror.
In a memo titled “Situation Report” dated February 6, Nairobi provincial police officer Njue Njagi instructs the nine city-based police division bosses to take all precautionary measures “to ensure that security is high and investigate the report”.
“Prime Minister Raila Odinga is allegedly targeted in a planned terrorist attack where the planners intend to sabotage a helicopter he would be using to facilitate a crash. This is out of annoyance that Kenya continues to cooperate with the US in the campaign against terror. Precautionary measures are necessary,” the memo says.
The Prime Minister’s office on Friday confirmed that it was aware of the threat.
“The PM has seen the police situation report. He was very concerned about it this morning when he took off for Kitale,” a spokesman said.
He shared it with some of his colleagues as they took off telling them they need to know there could be danger in the air even as they accompanied him.
“But he is taking the threat seriously. He also got a message on phone this week warning him of a possible assassination attack. We are in the process of registering that SMS threat with the police,” the PM’s office told the Nation.
One of the threatening messages sent to the PM’s mobile phone and forwarded to the PPO reads: “I am looking for the slightest opportunity to assassinate you. Just like John F. Kennedy , Yitzhak Rabin, Laurent Kabila etc. You will join the statistics. Be careful.”
