• Climbing Star Agencies rubbishes claims its among entities whose assets were frozen over terror funding by the state on Wednesday.
• It says it has been cleared after presenting documents to the IG
Image: COURTESY
A company that had been linked to terrorism and declared a specified entity now says it has since been cleared of the allegations.
Inspector General of police Hilary Mutyambai had in March given three companies in Eastleigh and nine individuals a week to defend themselves why they cannot be declared Specified Entities.
A ‘special entity’ is a person or organization suspected to have committed, attempted to, or prepared to commit a terrorist act.
On Thursday, a local daily said that Climbing Star Agencies was one of the companies whose assets were frozen by the state on Wednesday as being financiers of terrorism in the country.
But a director with Climbing Star Mohamed Farah said the agency appeared before a select committee after the IG gave them time to defend themselves.
“On March 13th, we submitted our documents for clearance and got cleared. We have been doing our business since and our company is not among those whose assets were freezed,” Farah said.
On Thursday, owners of Climbing Star went to the Police Spokesman’s office to seek clarifications and status of their agency after media reports that its assets were freezed by state on Wednesday.
“We are a legitimate company with 187 branches countrywide dealing with Safaricom items and mobile phones, let the public know we are not criminals,” he said.
Police spokesman Charles Owino gave credence to his words.
“The fact that they were not in the latest list it means they are ok for now. The IG set up a team that listened to their side of story and I believe they were convinced. It was after the sessions that the other names were sent to the Cabinet Secretary for further action,” he said.
Mutyambai placed a notice in the dailies indicating his intention to declare the nine persons and the companies Specified Entity.
Under Section 3 of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), the IG is expected to notify the entities of his intention to recommend to the Interior Cabinet Secretary, that an order has been made declaring each of the entities named therein a Specified Entity.
They were expected to demonstrate within seven days why they should not be declared as specified entities.
The law requires that before the IG makes such recommendations, he must afford the affected entities reasonable opportunity why they should not be considered as terrorist sympathisers.
On Tuesday, Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i ordered the immediate freezing of assets attached to nine Kenyans, alleged to finance Al-Shabaab operations.
The nine who have terror related cases in court include Halima Ali, Waleed Ahmed Zein, Sheikh Boru, Mohammed Ali, Nuseiba Haji, Abdimajit Hassan, Mohammed Ali Abdi, Muktar Ali and Mire Elmi in the list.
"As part of our comprehensive counter-terrorism strategy, we continue to disrupt terrorist operations with a sole focus on bringing to book perpetrators, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts in line with our national laws and international obligations," Matiang'i said.