Tuesday, August 26, 2014
COUNTER-TERROR experts from Nairobi yesterday testified at the trial of two Somali suspects arrested with explosives in a car in Mombasa.
The prosecution said it was the biggest haul of explosives recovered in the country and could have caused massive destruction at the Moi International Airport in Mombasa or unspecified malls.
One of Kenya’s explosives experts gave his evidence in the case against suspected Al Shabaab members Abdiaziz Abdullah Abdi and Isaak Noor Ibrahim .
Senior Superintendent of Police Henry Kiplagat told the court about the explosives that were found in a parked vehicle .
He said Improvised Explosive Devices were welded to the floor and back seat of the Toyota Hilux registration number KAN 410E that Abdi and Ibrahim were found in.
Kiplagat told state lawyer Peter Kiplagat that he helped detonate the 173kgs of TNT-RDX explosives in cylindrical metal pipes.
The explosives were discovered by American FBI agents a week after the car was impounded by the Anti-Terror Police Unit.
Kiplagat said the suspects' arsenal, which was destroyed at a field in Mtwapa, included 4 Russian grenades and two 282 Chinese grenades.
Abdi and Ibrahim through lawyers Ian Simiyu and Matthew Oduor whoever applied to have Kiplagat stand down as a witness.
They said they were not given his statements before the trial began.
A second ballistics expert told the court that the weapons recovered in the vehicle were in perfect condition when Abdi and Ibrahim were arrested.
Chief Inspector Florence Karimi said she conducted ballistics examinations on an AK47, 240 bullets and five empty magazines.
She said the bullets were from Russia, disputing earlier claims by the defence that they could have been from the Kenya Ordinance Factory in Eldoret.
“According to the serials found on these bullets, they were all made by Russian manufacturers. I test-fired fifteen and found them to be in perfect working condition,” Karimi said.
A scene of crime photographer attached to the ATPU office in Mombasa produced 57 photos of the evidence.
Principle magistrate Justus Kituku postponed the case to October 23 so that the prosecution can give the defence all the material it will use against Abdi and Ibrahim in the trial.