Former U.S. police officer in Kenyan court over illegal firearms

A former U.S. police officer was arraigned in a Kenyan court on Wednesday for possessing illegal weapons.

The 67-year-old U.S. police officer, Stauart Donaldson, together with Jesse Kinyua, a former Kenyan paramilitary police officer, and Aden Abdilahi from Mandera in northeast Kenya, was accused of being in possession of 27 imitations of the AK47 assault rifles at the Wilderness Camp in central Kenya.

The trio, however, denied the charges before Baricho Principal Magistrate Evans Keago who remanded them in custody pending further investigations by the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit.

State Prosecutor, Chief Inspector Rose Roneya said the three were arrested on June 6 while in possession of the illegal firearms in contravention of the Fire Arms Act.

Through their lawyer Robert Onyango, the accused denied the charges and pleaded with the court to release them on bail.

The prosecution team, however, opposed the bail application, citing incomplete verification of some other items the accused also were allegedly found in possession of.

Roneya requested the court to remand the suspects pending the arrival of the anti-terror police personnel from Nairobi to inspect a communication gadget and other items to ascertain their use.

"Once examination and the verification are carried out and turn out to be what we are suspecting, then we are likely to charge the accused with more criminal offences," Roneya told the magistrate.

The court will rule on bail application on Friday.

Since the Garissa terror attack, which claimed 148 lives, Kenyan police have intensified border patrols and have been rounding up several suspects who are being grilled in various police stations over possible links to Al-Shabaab and the Garissa massacre on April 2. Endi