SPLM demands complete investigation on Nairobi attack

Aug 11, 2006 (NAIROBI) — The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) has urged Kenyan authorities for meticulous investigations into the attack of its five employees with corrosive acid August and the arrest of the culprits.

The movement urged police to extend their investigations beyond the alleged conflict between two camps at the SPLM regional office in Nairobi where the attack took place on Tuesday 8 August, Kenyan daily newspaper Nation reported.

Police traced the motive of the attack to last month’s transfer of the Sudan Relief Rehabilitation Commission from Ngong Road to the SPLM regional office on Mijikenda Road, Lavington.

“Preliminary investigations indicate the two groups have been feuding over the office,” said Herbat Khaemba, commander of Nairobi’s Kilimani police division where the SPLM office in the upscale Lavington area is located.

Ms Jackie Chole, an administrator at the SPLM regional office, said four victims of the attack work under the commission while the other is attached to the regional office and called for thorough investigation. The commission is the humanitarian wing of the movement.

Kilimani division police boss H. Khaemba said detectives had recorded statements from witnesses, including SPLM staff.

The SPLM liaison office, based in the former home of late rebel leader John Garang, serves as a de facto embassy for the government and assists tens of thousands of southern Sudanese refugees living in Kenya.

(The Nation/ST)