Deported Briton had Al Shabaab links, House told

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/news/InsidePage.php?id=2000040526&cid=159&

The Government deported a Briton in March acting on intelligence reports that she had links to terrorist group, Al-Shabaab, Parliament heard.


Immigration minister Otieno Kajwang’ said Ms Clara Gutteridge, a self-professed human rights investigator, was, according to the National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS), engaged in subversive activities, which were a threat to national security.


Kajwang’ told Parliament that the NSIS advised her deportation for “involvement with known terrorist operatives, including the Al-Shabaab.”


Al-Shabaab is a militant group that is linked to Al-qaeda and operates from war-torn Somalia.


He said Gutteridge was found with Al-Shabaab literature and was deported on March 22. The minister said UK authorities were “fully briefed” on the issue and two British officials witnessed the deportation. He further said the NSIS wrote to him on February 23 and he issued the deportation order on March 22.


She was subsequently arrested at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport with outlawed publications, he added. Gutteridge was travelling on two different passports.


Kajwang’ added Gutteridge was in the country illegally because she neither possessed a work permit from his ministry nor clearance from the Office of the President as a researcher.


Imenti Central MP Gitobu Imanyara had asked the minister to explain the circumstances under which Gutteridge was deported from Kenya.


Imanyara questioned why due process that required she be taken to court was never followed. But the minister said not all cases are taken to court and that deportation is an administrative action by Government.