The scene at the Pangani police station on April 23, 2014, after a
suicide bomber detonated a home-made bomb that was in the car. PHOTO |
FILE
Two suspected terrorists intercepted in a
vehicle that later exploded at the Pangani police station looked
“harmless” and were “cooperative” when police confronted them, a trial
court heard on Tuesday.
There was no need to search the
vehicle as the occupants had committed a “minor” traffic offence and
were being escorted to the station to be booked for flouting traffic
rules, the court heard.
The police officers whose
colleagues perished in the blast alongside the suspected terrorists
recounted how they saw the vehicle make a wrong turn before they
intercepted it and arrested the occupants.
Mr Samuel
Kinyua Kabiru, who was in charge of a mobile patrol team on April 23,
said he and his colleagues were racing towards Thika Road and on
reaching the Pangani flyover, “we came across a vehicle registration
number KAV 708R Toyota NZE, which was being driven on a service lane.”
WRONG TURN
He
said the driver suddenly made a wrong turn trying to join Murang’a Road
towards the Guru Nanak Hospital, but “we intercepted the vehicle and
blocked it using our patrol car.”
“Looking inside, I saw the driver, he was of Somali origin... and a passenger was in the rear seat,” Mr Kabiru said.
He
said he ordered one of the police officers who later died in the
explosion to take the driver's license and told another officer to join
him to escort the vehicle to the station. One officer was armed with an
AK-47 rifle, while the other carried a G3 rifle.
“We were to hand them over to the traffic department for an offence of driving on the wrong side of the road,” the witness said.
He said he remained in the patrol car, driven by a colleague, Mr Alex Ndara, and followed the suspect's car.
The witness said the vehicle slowed down at the entrance to the police station and soon exploded
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