Government intensifies search on Somali warlords

The Government today moved in swiftly to evict runaway Somalia warlords from Nairobi as part of strategies to bring peace to the war-torn country.

Police launched a search on the warlords in Nairobi and managed to get one who they escorted to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

The deported warlord was identified as Abdikadir Hussein. He was flushed out of the Grand Regency Hotel at about 8.00 am and driven to the immigration offices at Nyayo House where the detectives started processing his deportation papers.

There was drama as the officers went to the hotel and requested that the warlord be cleared. The officers led by Central CID boss Munga Nyale arrived in two unmarked cars.

He was later driven to the airport at 10.00 am by police and the immigration officials where he was supposed to wait for a plane that would carry him away.

Police and the immigration officials said they would ask him to choose a country he would like to be deported to.

“We have been informed that he is among the warlords fanning animosity in Somalia and that is why he is being deported,” said a senior police officer.

Police said the warlord was part of the Anti-Terrorism Alliance formed to tackle the Islamic courts. The alliance has been chased away from Mogadishu.

Police are still looking for other suspected warlords in city hotels. The team revealed that they were depending on intelligence supplied to them on the whereabouts of the warlords.

Reports indicated that there were about 10 warlords in the police list who were being sought.

The move came a day after the government announced a ban on the Somali warlords from coming into the country.

The Government announced that it had imposed a total ban on the warlords and their associates from Kenya.

Source: Standard, June 7, 2006