Four people arrested over the weekend for possessing lethal weapons have been released.
Nairobi News has established that the four heavily armed men were released after it emerged that they were police reservists stationed on the Kenya-Somalia border, tasked with dealing with Alshabaab terrorists.
They have been identified as Osman Yussuf Gure, 40, Ali Farah Dagane, 39, Ahmed Mohamed Gedi, 29, and Abdullahi Ali Omar, 38.
They were nabbed in a joint operation by detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), administrative police officers from the Border Unit and regular police officers.
In a statement, the DCI said the four were nabbed in the Nuno area of Garissa County, and it remains unclear where they were taking the weapons.
“In a covert operation conducted by officers from AP’s elite Border Police Unit, 4 AK-47 assault rifles, over 540 rounds of 7.62x39mm ammunition, machetes, ballistic helmets, military fatigues and other weapons were recovered from the four suspects,” the statement read in part.
The DCI said the four were arrested following intelligence reports on their activities by members of the public.
The members of the public informed the AP officer attached to Modika Camp in Garissa, complaining of suspicious men travelling in a white Toyota Probox with registration number KDL 610A.
Immediately upon receiving the information, the officer commanding Modika Camp mobilised his officers who acted swiftly and intercepted the four.
“Detectives are yet to establish the mission of the four suspects who were armed with the deadly arsenal and are currently being interrogated at a heavily guarded location,” the DCI said.
“The DCI commends the swift action of the officers based in Modika as the weapons would have had a devastating effect if used against innocent civilians,” the statement added.
The incident comes barely a month after a group of leaders in Garissa called on various security agencies to take action over cases of insecurity in the area.
