Homeland Security

DATE=3/26/2003

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=KENYA / BOMBING (L-O)

NUMBER=2-301329

BYLINE=KATY SALMON

DATELINE=NAIROBI

CONTENT=

INTRO: At least three policemen have been arrested in Kenya in connection with last year's bombing near the coastal city of Mombasa, in which 15-people were killed. Katy Salmon reports from Nairobi that it is alleged that the police officers let two suspects escape.

TEXT: Deputy police spokesman Jesse Mutuki says, in his words, about three police officers have been arrested under suspicion of having helped foreign terrorists involved in last year's bomb attack to escape. He says they could be prosecuted.

/// MUTUKI ACT ///

We are still investigating. We are trying to establish the circumstances under which they escaped. If anybody is found to have assisted the escape they will be taken to court.

/// END ACT ///

Local Kenyan press reports say four men have been arrested, including the head of the flying-squad unit in Mombasa.

According to another report, the suspects were arrested prior to the November attack because they were in possession of false passports.

But they reportedly escaped under suspicious circumstances while in the company of the same police officers who have been arrested.

Mr. Mutuki says the police officers have been transferred from Mombasa to Nairobi for further interrogation by Kenya's newly established Anti-Terrorism Police Unit.

Kenya reported another success in its war on terrorism last week with the capture in Somalia of a suspected operative in terrorist leader Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida organization. The man was flown to Nairobi for questioning.

Kenyan National Security Minister Chris Murangaru identifies the suspect as Suleiman Abdalla. He is now being flown to the United States, where he is to stand trial in connection with the 1998 terrorist attack on the U-S Embassy in Nairobi, in which more than 200-people died. (SIGNED)

NEB/KT/ALW/RAE/KBK