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Terror suspect arrested at Kenyan president's rural residence

Xinhua, April 23, 2015 Adjust font size:

Kenyan authorities on Wednesday are interrogating a terror suspect who was arrested late on Tuesday at President Uhuru Kenyatta's rural home at Gatundu town in Kenya's Kiabu County.

The police said Mirre Siyad was arrested at the residence of Kenya's first family on suspicion of carrying out surveillance in preparation for a terrorist attack.

Siyad who was arraigned in court Wednesday was however handed over to the anti-terrorism police unit to carry out further investigations.

State Prosecutor Daniel Karuri told the court that the suspect did not explain what he was doing at the president's residence and urged the court to allow the police to complete investigations.

Karuri who request the court for two weeks said the investigators needed more time to extract call data from the suspect's mobile phone and this might require them to travel to some regions in northwest Kenya.

Resident Magistrate Edda Agade ruled that the suspect, believed to have associates who were yet to be arrested, be detained for 15 days.

Siyad did not plea to the charges pending investigations. Agade said he is believed to have associates who are still at large.

Since the Garissa terror attack, the police have rounded up several suspects who are being grilled in various police stations over possible links to Al-Shabaab and the Garissa massacre on April 2 that killed 148 people.

The Al-Shabaab terror group, which has links to Al-Qaida network, claimed responsibility for the attack which mainly targeted Christians. Endi