8th April, 2015
Kenya’s police chief issued Wednesday a list of 85 people and companies, including at least 13 key money transfer companies, of suspected links to Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab.
Top of the list issued in an official government gazette notice was alleged Shebab commander Mohamed Mohamud, said to be the mastermind behind the university massacre of almost 150 people last week. The list also included money transfer companies that often provide a way for relatives to send lifeline remittances to war-torn Somalia.
Earlier, Kenya suspended a series of bank accounts suspected to be linked to financing terrorism, days after the university massacre of almost 150 people by Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab, the treasury said Wednesday.
“Actions taken are consistent with the international law on financing terrorism…. we produced a list of persons and entities who may have been involved in facilitating terrorism activities,” said top treasury official Kamau Thugge.
“There will be intensive investigations to be able to establish whether indeed they were involved.”
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Saturday warned Shebab fighters his government will respond to their killing of almost 150 students in the “severest way” possible, with warplanes on Monday attacking Islamist bases in southern Somalia.
But Kenyatta also warned that the masterminds behind last Thursday’s attack were inside Kenya, not Somalia.
“The planners and financiers of this brutality are deeply embedded in our communities,” he said.
“We will not allow them to continue their lives as normal, the full force of the law will be brought to bear with even greater intensity that has been the case in previous years.”
The treasury have given no details on the exact accounts frozen.
However, there are huge flows of money both ways between the neighbouring nations, for trade and business, as well as in lifeline remittances to war-torn Somalia from relatives in the region.
With no formal banking system in the impoverished country, diaspora Somalis turn to money transfer services to send money back home support their families, sending some $1.3 billion (1.1 billion euros) each year, dwarfing foreign aid.
The day-long seige on Garissa University, situated near the border with Somalia, claimed 148 lives, including 142 students, three police officers and three soldiers.
The massacre was Kenya’s deadliest attack since the 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi.