Met Police In Kenya Over Murder And Kidnap

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/kenya-brits-murder-kidnap-man-arrested-035212943.html


....A team of Metropolitan Police officers have travelled to Kenya to help authorities investigating the murder of a British man and the kidnap of his wife.

David and Judith Tebbutt were on holiday at the exclusive Kiwayu Safari Village , close to the border with Somalia, when they were attacked early on Sunday morning

Earlier, it emerged that Kenyan police had arrested a man suspected of being involved in the incident.

A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said a small team had gone to assist and support the Kenyan authorities who "remain the lead investigators".

District Commissioner Stephen Ikua is quoted by The Times as saying a local man has been arrested on suspicion of helping co-ordinate the attack.

Concerns are growing for Mrs Tebbutt, 56, who is said to rely on a double hearing aid.

Officials said the Tebbutts, who have a 25-year-old son, were attacked on the first night of their stay at the resort, with reports suggesting bandits broke into their accommodation.


There are suspicions that the gang, thought to be from Somalia, used a speedboat to get away from the isolated island resort, whose guests have included artist Tracey Emin, actress Imelda Staunton and Sir Mick Jagger.

The couple had come from visiting the Masai Mara reserve and were the resort's only guests.

Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere said the bandits could gain access to the couple's accommodation, which had a piece of cloth as a door, "so easily".

He told a press conference it was possible that Mr Tebbutt had "resisted", which may have been why he was shot.


He said if the attackers are hoping for a ransom for Mrs Tebbutt, it was likely they will get in contact.

There has been speculation the kidnappers could be from al Qaeda-linked insurgent group al Shabab which controls much of southern Somalia.

Mr Tebbutt, 58, from Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, worked for publisher Faber & Faber and was a member of the Book Trade Charity, which offers support and grants to those in the book trade.

Chief executive David Hicks, who met him more than 10 years ago, said the best way to describe Mr Tebbutt was "all the dedicated words you want".


"He was a lovely chap, he was on the grants committee. He was a very caring person and very concerned about the people that we were supporting financially."

He said he knew Mr Tebbutt, who was also a member of literary dinner club the Society of Bookmen, had lived and worked in Africa previously, although he did not know the details.

The Foreign Office said a team has been deployed to the area from the High Commission in Nairobi and was "offering all possible support to the family of those involved".

A spokesman said: "We are working to secure the safe and swift release of the British national who has been kidnapped and ask those involved to show compassion and release the individual immediately."


It warned against "all but essential travel to within 30km of Kenya's border with Somalia".

Its website says: "There have been previous attacks by Somali militia into Kenya. Three aid workers were kidnapped in July 2009, and two western nuns in November 2008."

It also warns against piracy, referring to the kidnapping of two British nationals in October 2009 as they sailed from the Seychelles to Tanzania in notoriously dangerous waters.

Retired couple Paul and Rachel Chandler, from Tunbridge Wells in Kent, spent 388 days in captivity until they were released last November after a ransom of up to £620,000 was paid.


The Foreign Office website warns: "If you visit Lamu Island, do so by air if possible. This is for security reasons and also because of the bad road conditions.

"Buses and other vehicles on the road to Lamu have been attacked by armed robbers in the past and overland travel from Lamu to Malindi should only be undertaken in an armed police convoy."

The Kiwayu resort's website had stated it takes "security and safety very seriously".

The website has now been taken down and replaced with the statement: "Sorry our website is unavailable due to the tragic events.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the affected family. Thank you for your understanding."

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Islamist Group Denies Brit's Kenya Kidnap

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2:47pm UK, Wednesday September 14, 2011




The Somali Islamist group al Shabaab has denied being responsible for
the kidnapping of a British woman at a beach resort in neighbouring
Kenya.







Al Shabaab says the kidnapping was carried out by 'bandits'




Judith
Tebbutt, 56, was taken from the Kiwayu Safari Village in the early
hours of Sunday after her husband David, 58, was killed.


"Al Shabaab has not abducted any Briton from Kenya," the group said in a statement.


"We believe bandits carried out the attack."


An al Shabaab recruitment officer in Kismayu, in Somalia, said Judith
Tebbutt had been brought to the city on Tuesday but that her
whereabouts were now unknown.







The couple had been staying at the Kiwayu Safari Village





Speaking in the House of Commons, Prime Minister David Cameron said
the Government was doing everything possible in the "desperately tragic
case".


Mr Cameron said the Foreign Secretary has met with the Tebbutt family
and that a meeting of the emergency committee, Cobra, had taken place.


Concern has been growing for Mrs Tebbutt, who is believed to be deaf and wear a double hearing aid.


On Tuesday, the Metropolitan Police said they had sent a team of officers to Kenya to assist the investigation.







David Tebbut was shot dead by the mystery kidnappers





Police in Kenya said they have arrested a man suspected of aiding the gunmen.


He is believed to have information about the person who organised the kidnapping.


The Kiwayu Safari Village issued a statement saying that everyone at the resort was "devastated" by what had happened.


It added they were "offering every assistance" to the authorities.

Pirates say holding British hostage in central Somalia
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/pirates-holding-british-hostage-central-somalia-135043545.html

..MOGADISHU (Reuters)- A British woman, who was kidnapped in Kenya after her husband was killed, is in the hands of Somali pirates in the centre of the lawless Horn of Africa nation, pirates and an elder in the region said on Sunday.

Unidentified gunmen raided the remote Kiwayu Safari Village in the early hours of last Sunday, shooting dead publishing executive David Tebbutt, 58, and taking hostage his wife Judith, 56, before escaping by boat.

"My colleagues brought her. I am among the ones guarding her ... Although you can understand the fatigue from her face, she is healthy," pirate Mohamed, one of the gang guarding the Briton, told Reuters.

An elder in central Somalia confirmed the Briton's arrival.

"A convoy of pirates reached here two hours ago, they brought the British lady. We are very disappointed, we do not want our area to be a place for keeping kidnapped innocent people," local elder Abdullahi Ali Abukar told Reuters on Sunday.

Kidnapping has chiefly been carried out by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean but Somali gunmen have attacked Westerners just across the border with Kenya on several occasions.

Three aid workers were kidnapped in July 2009, and two western nuns in November 2008.

Somalia's al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab rebel group has said it was not behind the kidnapping and Britain has said it was working hard to secure her release.

The south of Somalia bordering Kenya is mainly controlled by al Shabaab, who have been fighting the Western-backed government in the capital Mogadishu for more than four years.

The lawless country has been without an effective central government since the dictator Siad Barre was toppled in 1991, after which first warlords then Islamist insurgents stepped into the power vacuum.

(Reporting by Mohamed Ahmed; Editing by George Obulutsa and Sophie Hares)

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