Kakamega police hold Form 3 student after confessing to be Al-Shabaab member
- High School News
Police are holding a Form Three student after he allegedly confessed to being a member of the Al-Shabaab militant group. The suspect (whose name we have withheld because he is a minor), a student at St Ignatius Mukumu Boys’ High School in Kakamega, is said to have confessed to his teachers that he is a member of the terror group.
Western Regional Police Commander Moses Ombati said his officers are investigating the matter to establish the truth. “We are aware of the case and we are currently investigating.We want to establish the merit of the information,” said Mr Ombati.
The suspect is said to have also claimed there are three other students in the school who are also members of the terror group. Reports indicate the suspect intimated that the three colleagues are armed with grenades, AK-47 rifles and other weapons and are planning to attack other students.
A search in the school, however, did not yield any weapons. Ombati said his officers have received the information and are treating the matter seriously. “Once we are through with investigations, the Government will respond immediately,” said the police boss.
The teenager is said to have joined the terror group while he was a student at Jamhuri High School in Nairobi, before his parents transferred him to Mukumu Boys last year. According to Mukumu Boys Principal Dennis Munyendo, the student told him he is a member of Al-Shabaab and claimed his life is in danger because other members of the group want to kill him.
“Initially, I tried to inquire from him if he was a member of the terror group but he denied, saying he had rejected plans by his friends to make him join the group. But last week he disclosed to us that he is a member and claimed his life is in danger,” said Mr Munyendo.
The school head says he became suspicious of the boy when the school admitted another student from Jamhuri High, whom the suspect said he knew well and claimed was a member of Al-Shabaab. The new student is said to have disappeared from the school last month and his whereabouts are still unknown.
“He told his teachers that he knows the new student and claimed he is a member of Al-Shabaab.We did investigations to establish the truth but the student has left the school and we do not know where he is,” he said.
The principal said the suspect informed him that his life is in danger because they had stabbed to death another member of the terror group to avenge the death of their friends who had been killed and their bodies dumped in Ngong’ Forest during the April holidays.
“The suspect told his teachers that his life is in danger. This prompted me to interrogate him to get more information. “He told me that other Al-Shabaab members are looking for him because he also murdered one of their members,” he said, adding: “Other members of the group had known that they killed their colleagues and are after them, they have already killed his accomplices and have vowed to get and kill him,” he said.
Munyendo said the student is also alleged to have been planning to execute attacks against Christian students in the school.
“He said they were waiting for other members of the group from Somalia to help them execute attacks in the school,” he said.
Upon receiving the information, the suspect’s father, a Kenya Defence Forces officer, took his son for psychological counselling last week. But his son maintained he is a member of the terror group after he returned to school,forcing the school administration to inform intelligence services who later sent Criminal Investigation officers and Anti-Terror Police Unit officers to investigate the matter.
The officers took the suspect to Kakamega Police Station for interrogation and further investigation. “His father took him home for counselling but the boy maintained that he is a member of the group after returning to school,” Munyendo said.
Reference : www.standardmedia.co.ke