{UAH} Is this Aljazeera interview - Kenya story true? or is someone after Uhuru & Ruto ? ..Still?
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Inside the Kenyan police units accused of hunting down and assassinating terror suspects in the country after 60 people are killed in two separate attacks
- Kenyan officers speak out about their work in so-called death squads
- Men told how instead of arresting suspects they 'eliminate them'
- They claim cleric linked to Samantha Lewthwaite was executed by police
- Kenyan government denies it runs an extrajudicial killing programme
- Officers spoke exclusively to the Al Jazeera Investigation Unit
- Comments come after more than 60 people killed by al-Shabaab
- 28 bus passengers and 36 quarry workers died in separate attacks
By Lucy Crossley for MailOnline
Published: 21:46 GMT, 7 December 2014 | Updated: 09:37 GMT, 8 December 2014
Members of Kenyan police and intelligence units accused of hunting down and assassinating terror suspects have claimed the killing of a controversial Muslim cleric was planned by high ranking officers and government officials.
The men, who are part of three so-called death squads, spoke out about their secret activities after more than 60 people were killed in two separate terror attacks by Al Qaeda-linked terror group al-Shabaab in the last month.
Speaking anonymously, they revealed that instead of arresting suspects they 'eliminate' them, and claimed the death of Abubaker Shariff Ahmed, who was accused of recruiting 'White Widow' Samantha Lewthwaite, was ordered by the Kenyan National Security Council.
A gunman (left) and a commando (right) from the Kenyan General Service Unit have spoken out about their roles in so-called death squads allegedly tasked with hunting down and killing terrorists
A spy from the National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS) (left) said his job is to find and identify the suspects, while an officer from the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (right) claimed hundreds of suspects are killed by police every year
Ahmed, who was also known as Makaburi - meaning graveyard, was shot dead in April as he walked from a court in Mombasa to a nearby mosque.
Human rights activists' have previously raised fears over police brutality in Kenya and claimed that the country's government - rattled by the presence of Islamic extremists - has been behind the deaths of several terror suspects.
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However, the Kenyan government has denied it runs an extrajudicial killing programme.
Speaking exclusively to an Al Jazeera investigation programme, which will be aired on Monday evening, the four men - all members of Kenyan intelligence and special police units - say they have all been involved in the assassination of terror suspects, with one claiming to have killed more than 50.
'We don't arrest,' a gunman from the Radiation Unit of the Kenyan General Service Unit's (GSU) elite Recce Company told the Al Jazeera Investigative Unit.
The ATPU police officer and the GSU Recce Company commando said that controversial cleric Abubaker Shariff Ahmed (pictured) had been killed by police and his death ordered by the government
'We never. In Recce Company we are sharpshooters. Why should a sharpshooter be taken to arrest?'
He added: 'I'm in Radiation. And Radiation, that thing is very dangerous.'
Describing his typical day he said: 'Usually eliminations happening here and there; in Mombasa, Muslims, radicals and all that.
'We are the elimination programme.'
The gunman appears in the programme Inside Kenya's Death Squads alongside a commando from Recce Company, a member of the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU) and a spy for the National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS).
According to Al Jazeera, which agreed to conceal the men's identities for security reasons, all of the officers play an integral part in Kenya's counter-terrorism strategy and all have had a hand in assassinating suspects.
According to Al Jazeera, which agreed to conceal the men's identities for security reasons, all of the officers play an integral part in Kenya's counter-terrorism strategy and all have had a hand in assassinating suspects
Speaking anonymously, the four officers revealed that instead of arresting suspects they 'eliminate' them
The ATPU police officer and the GSU Recce Company commando said that Ahmed had been killed by police and his death ordered by the government.
In November last year, Ahmed had told Al Jazeera that he feared for his life, and predicted that counter-terrorism police would kill him.
He died on April 1 and his companion was also shot dead.
Ahmed had been linked to fugitive terror suspect Lewthwaite, dubbed the White Widow, as he helped more than 100 Britons to join Al-Qaeda-linked terror group al-Shabab, which counts her as a member.
The British Muslim convert is the world's most wanted woman after being accused of allegedly ordering the killings of two radical Muslim clerics, two Protestant preachers, and three others with links to al-Shabab.
However, in September last year Ahmed denied ever having met Lewthwaite, who is the widow of of 7/7 bomber Germaine Lindsay.
Although described by some as charismatic and intelligent, Ahmed held radical views and notably said that the four al-Shabab gunmen who slaughtered at least 67 people in Nairobi's Westgate Mall in September 'had every right to do what they did'.
Attack: Rescue workers at the Nairobi-bound bus that was ambushed by al Shabab militants who killed 28 passengers when they were unable to recite an Islamic creed
Mortuary attendants carry in the bodies of 36 quarry workers killed by insurgents in Mandera, which is around eight miles from the border with Somalia
'Islamically it is justified. We cannot allow foreign forces entering Muslim countries, killing innocent Muslim people and then it go unpunished,' he said, citing Kenya's military presence in Somalia and the need for an 'eye for an eye' defense of Muslim life.
'Makaburi was killed by the police,' the ATPU officer told Al Jazeera.
'That execution was planned in Nairobi by very top high ranking police officers and government officials.'
The commando added: 'The government did it yeah. This is the person who's bringing trouble here, let us eliminate and we have peace.'
The ATPU officer also told programme makers that the government's National Security Council gives the order to execute terror suspects.
He said: 'It comprises of the President, Deputy President, Chief of the Defence Forces, Inspector General of Police, NISIS Director, Cabinet Secretary of Interior, and the Principal Secretary Interior.
'Any decision is made within that club of people.'
Kenya has been hit by a spate of terror attacks at the hands of al-Shabab, which militants say are being carried out in retaliation for Kenya taking part in UN-backed peacekeeping activities in Somalia in October 2011.
Last Tuesday militants from the Somali-based group killed 36 quarry workers, most of them Christian, in Mandera, which is around eight miles from the border with Somalia.
On November 22, al-Shabaab fighters stopped a bus bound for Nairobi and shot 28 passengers who could not recite an Islamic creed.
Authorities say the terror group has been behind at least 135 attacks, including the assault on Nairobi's upscale Westgate Mall in September 2013 in which 67 people were killed. Al-Shabaab said it was responsible for other attacks on Kenya's coast earlier this year which killed at least 90 people.
The officers in the programme said they believe assassinations of terror suspects is necessary because of the threat the country faces from insurgents.
'Since I was employed, I've killed over fifty', said the commando from Recce Company.
'I do become proud because I've eliminated some problems.'
Asked if human rights should be taken into account he described a terror suspect as 'a very dangerous person to our country'.
'What do you do with such a person?', he said. 'Do you spare such a person because you are observing human rights?
He added: 'The first person to get rid of is the leader.'
And the ATPU officer claimed hundreds of suspects are killed by police every year.
He said: 'Day in, day out, you hear of eliminating suspects. We have the police itself. We have special units like GSU. So not a total, but you can say about almost 500.'
He added: 'That is police work.'
Speaking about one case he confessed: 'They were targeted, identified and eliminated in front of their families.'
The spy told the programme that his job is to find and identify the suspects.
'We pass the right information to the right source for the right action to be taken against them,' he said.
Asked if his intelligence is used to eliminate suspects he answered: 'Yes, of course. We've done it and that is why we are there.'
- Inside Kenya's Death Squads will broadcast on Al Jazeera's news channel on Monday at 8pm.
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