By KEVIN J KELLY and FRED MUKINDA

The US sent its military to Kenya to hunt down and kill suspected terrorists… without the knowledge of the Kenya government, according to a UK newspaper.

The Guardian on Tuesday reported that one of the suspects was assassinated as part of a wider programme against al-Qaeda under the Bush administration.

The assassination turned out to be a “severe embarrassment” and may have contributed to the termination of the programme, the newspaper said. However, security sources in government who spoke to the Nation on Tuesday said they were not aware of such an operation.

Kenya has over the years maintained close ties with the US in the fight against terrorism with the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit being a large beneficiary of US funds.

The cooperation, for instance, saw a man suspected of being a member of al-Qaeda arrested in Mogadishu by the Americans and brought to Nairobi in 2003.

Kenyan police also surrendered to the US a suspect who had been arrested in Kenya in 2007 and was eventually flown to the US-run Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba.

The Guardian did not identify the victim of the US killing in Kenya and based its report on an unmanned former intelligence official who, it said, “did not give details of the operation.”

An official close to the government security operations but who requested not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter said a terror suspect was killed in the Ras Kamboni area across the border in Somalia in circumstances that were not clear. The official did not elaborate.

US attempts to kill suspected terrorists in Somalia using missiles fired from drones, warships and submarines, are not secret and have been widely reported.

In January 2003, Mr William Munuhe, believed to be an informer for the Federal Bureau of Investigations, was shot dead in his house in Karen.

He had been involved in the investigation into the whereabouts of Rwandan genocide fugitive Felicien Kabuga and it is not clear whether his is the case in question.

Intelligence

William Munuhe – FBI Informant, CIA Murdering al-Qaeda Suspects in Kenya and Somalia, AlKaida, Al-Kaida, Alkeda, Amos Wako

Attorney General Amos Wako said: “We are not aware of the operation. Security intelligence people may know but the AG is not aware.”

And police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said: “No such operation could have been planned with the knowledge of the Kenya police because that would be conspiracy to murder.”

The assassination programme has been in the news after it was revealed that the spy agency did not brief US legislators as required by law. The programme was recently cancelled and the CIA said it never progressed beyond the planning stage.

However, The Guardian reported that while the CIA did not proceed with the plan, the US military, which does not need to inform Congress every time it goes out to kill enemies, did.

Former US vice-president Dick Cheney ordered the killing project hidden from MPs because it pushed the limits of legality by planning to assassinate suspects in friendly countries without the knowledge of their governments, The Guardian said.

The Guardian Story — Dick Cheney ‘hid plans to kill al-Qaida operatives abroad‘

CIA Hit Squads — Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld Assassination Squads

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