WOMAN'S KIN HELD IN MOSHI

Three relatives of a city businesswoman shot dead by Tanzanian police were arrested in Moshi yesterday.

The woman was killed alongside 13 other Kenyans.

Her father James Njoroge King’ara, and brother Oscar Kingara were held after recording statements at the Kilimanjaro Regional Police headquarters yesterday morning.

Another brother, who was not immediately identified, was also arrested.

They had travelled there to claim the body of 43-year-old Anna Nyakanyi King’ara.

A public cemetery

A senior police officer in Kenya yesterday said that there was very little the Kenyan police could do about the arrests.

The Tanzanian authorities on Saturday gave a 14 days notice to the families of those killed to collect the bodies from the Mawenzi hospital mortuary or risk having them buried in a public cemetery.

Mr King’ara, a city businessman and his two sons, left Nairobi on Saturday morning to collect the body.

The businesswoman and the other Kenyans were shot dead last Thursday on suspicion that they were planning a robbery on a branch of the Exim bank the next day.

They were killed a day after a Tanzanian court acquitted six Kenyans on previous charges of robbery with violence.

The father and his two sons were allegedly ordered to put off their phones, which were impounded and the Tanzanian police took their fingerprints and photographs before they were locked up.

Being held hostage

One of them sent a distress SMS to the media saying they were being held at the Regional Police offices, and were being forced to record statements and have their finger prints and photographs taken.

Meanwhile, past criminal details linked to some of the 14 Kenyans have emerged.

Mr Wilson Kiige had been named alongside a Kasarani parliamentary aspirant in connection with assault claims against Narc-K activist Orie Rogo Manduli last month.

He had also been interviewed by police in Nairobi over the activities of the outlawed Mungiki sect.

Police in Kirinyaga have disclosed that two victims — Simon Maina Ndabaki alias Mbole and Peter Maina Waweru — were being sought in connection with a series of violent robberies in the area.


SOURCE: DAILY NATION