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| Africa Horn |
| Police identify main suspect in bus blast |
| 2010-12-22 |
| [Daily Nation (Kenya)] Police on Tuesday identified Albert Olando Mulanda, a 35-year-old Tanzanian, as the bus bomber who injured 41 people in a grenade attack on Monday night. Mulanda, the only person to die in the incident, entered the country through Oloitoktok on October 23, using temporary pass number 0903962, Commissioner of Police Mathew Iteere said on Tuesday. Police insist that Mulanda acted alone and not as part of a larger group as earlier thought. Witnesses had described the attack as having been carried out by three people, others by as many as seven men. Mulanda's fingerprints have been sent to the Tanzanian National Registration Bureau for confirmation of his identity. His body is at the City Mortuary. The explosive device has been positively identified as a Russian-made F1 hand grenade, believed to have originated from a neighbouring country and similar to another which blew up in the Embakasi District Commissioner's Land Rover in Eastleigh Section III on December 3. Explosions Police are linking the explosion in Nairobi's River Road targeting Kampala Coach to two other grenade explosions in the city earlier in the month and the discovery of 26 detonators on a bus in Uganda later. Detectives are now trying to trace local and international mobile phone numbers found in a notebook recovered from the suspected bomber's pockets. "We are in the process of checking the contents of the notebook, but it seems that the grenade was destined for Uganda," Mr Iteere said. Investigations into the two grenade attacks in Eastleigh and Kasarani have since established that the two suspects who were shot dead by police after killing two traffic police officers at the Roysambu roundabout had entered the country three days earlier in the company of two others. Information obtained from their seized mobile phones included an SMS message with the registration number of a vehicle. Kenyan police forwarded the registration number to Ugandan police who intercepted the bus in Uganda and recovered 26 detonators destined for Kampala. Mulanda, booked on seat number F4, is now the only person the police are confirming as having died though on Monday night, they had released information that a woman had been declared dead on arrival at the Nairobi Hospital. On Tuesday, police commended the Kampala Coach security personnel for thwarting the terror plot. Mr Iteere expressed concern about the large number of Ethiopian and Somali nationals entering the country illegally and warned that owners of vehicles found sneaking aliens into the country will be paraded and charged in court. He asked Kenyans to be more vigilant, especially during this festive season and report any suspicious persons to police. |
| Posted by:Fred |