Cuban doctors’ driver to be detained for 15 days

A driver attached to two Cuban doctors will be detained for 15 days on suspicion that he planned and facilitated their abduction.

The Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU) yesterday told Milimani Court Resident Magistrate Muthoni Nzibe that Issack Ibren was being investigated following the kidnapping of Dr Landy Rodriguez and Dr Herera Correa last weekend.

The doctors, one who is a surgeon and the other a general practitioner, who were seized at the border town of Mandera, are feared to have been taken into Bulla Hawa, Somalia, by Al Shabaab militants.

In an affidavit filed by Inspector Abdishakur Adan, Ibren, who is a driver with the Mandera County Government, was arrested on April 12 by ATPU officers and flown to Nairobi on Sunday for interrogation.

“At the time of his arrest, one mobile phone – a Nokia TA-1034 – was recovered. It is currently being forensically examined and a report is yet to be obtained and analysed,” said Mr Abdishakur.

He said the suspect was using two different SIM cards and the data call records were yet to be retrieved.

“The information gathered so far shows that the plot involved Ibren and that he was in communication with several other individuals,” said the officer, adding that there was need to interview them and establish whether they were involved in the kidnap plot.

Abdishakur told the court that they were also interrogating Ibren over several unsolved terror, kidnap and murder cases.

The officer said that based on the sensitivity of the investigations, the suspect was a flight risk and should remain in custody pending a determination on whether he was engaging in illegal criminal activities.

The doctors were attacked as Ibren ferried them in a Toyota Hilux registration number GKA 22IU to the Mandera County Referral Hospital.

Abdishakur said the doctors were guarded by two police officers – Rahmathan Barua and Mutundo Katambo. Their vehicle came under heavy gunfire a few kilometres from the doctors’ residence after a Toyota Probox blocked the road and its occupants opened fire.

“The attackers, who are suspected to have been three in number, shot and killed Administrative Police officer Mutundo Katambo and kidnapped the two Cuban doctors,” said Abdishakur.

The officer said Mutundo’s body was flown to Nairobi for a post-mortem.