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Kenyan pleads guilty to grenade attack, being Shebab

By AFP
Kenya Kenyan police secure the scene of an explosion in Nairobi.  By Simon Maina AFPFile
OCT 26, 2011 LISTEN
Kenyan police secure the scene of an explosion in Nairobi. By Simon Maina (AFP/File)

NAIROBI (AFP) - A Kenyan man plead guilty Wednesday to involvement in a grenade attack in Nairobi and being a member of the Al-Qaeda linked Somali Shebab militant group.

Police arrested Elgiva Bwire Oliacha Tuesday in a Nairobi district and seized a cache of weapons including several grenades, ammunition and guns, after two grenade attacks shocked Kenya's capital.

On Monday, one person was killed in a grenade attack at a Nairobi bus stop hours after several others were wounded when a grenade was detonated in a bar.

Bwire, aged 28 and from western Kenya, admitted guilt in court only to involvement in Monday night's grenade attack at a bus station, as well as to possession of unlicensed weapons.

His case is due to be heard again on Friday, and he could face up to 15 years in prison.

Despite Bwire's guilty plea, Shebab leaders continue to deny responsibility for the attacks, which wounded more than two dozen people.

Kenyan police have in the past been accused of using "violence and torture during interrogations," according to US State Department reports.

Police have come under intense pressure to step up security following threats of retaliation by Shebab insurgents after Kenya's military launched an assault against the rebels in the south of war-torn Somalia.

Kenya blames the Shebab for the recent spate of kidnappings of foreigners in the country, but the hardline rebels have denied the accusation.

Kenyan forces, believed to be between 2,000 and 3,000, have driven some 100 kilometres (60 miles) into Somalia since the launch of the offensive on October 16.

Earlier this month, two Spanish aid workers were seized in Kenya's eastern Dadaab camp and are believed to have been taken across the border into Somalia.

A British tourist was kidnapped from Kenya's coastal areas last month and also taken to Somalia, followed shortly afterward by a Frenchwoman, who later died in captivity in Somalia.

© 2011 AFP

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