Somalia: Kenyan Police Seize Truck Loaded With Explosives

Wajer, Jun 22 2013 (SDN) –Kenya’s Administration Police, a paramilitary security force, have seized a truck loaded with more than 27 tonnes of assorted bomb-making materials believed to be destined for the Al-Shabaab militant sulphate, 7,000 kg of basic chromium sulphate, 3,000 kg of sodium formate, 3,000 kg of sodium bicarbonate, 2,500 kg of soda ash and 5,000 kg of microzyme-P.

“If these materials had managed to group in neighbouring Somalia.

The truck was apprehended by the Administration Police personnel manning a checkpoint along the Dadajabula-Dif  Road in Wajir County in northerneastern Kenya, almost 500 km northeast of here, Wajir County Commissioner Naftali Mung’athia said Thursday.

The truck, which was ferrying the chemicals from Kenya’s Indian Ocean port of Mombasa, was loaded with 7,000 kg of sodium cross over into Somalia, it would have dealt a serious blow to our efforts to curb rising Al Shabab attacks within our borders. The explosives made from these would have been used against our KDF (Kenyan Defence Force) personnel in Somalia and others would have been brought into our country by these terrorists to wreck havoc,” Mung’athia said.

Bomb experts have taken samples from the chemicals in the lorry for further tests in Nairobi to establish the range of explosives that could be derived from them. The lorry belonging to a Garissa businessman is being kept under 24-hour armed guard.

The incident comes a couple of months after security personnel in Wajir town, acting on a tip-off from the public, recovered over 10 AK47s, 20 hand grenades and an assorted cache of explosives buried at a cemetery in the town.

Source: Shabelle Media Network