Ongeri reveals intrigues behind
Somalia's assassination plot
STEPHEn MUDIARI | NATION Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Ongeri
speaks to journalists upon arrival from Mogadishu at the Wilson Airport in
Nairobi on September 12, 2012.
By Henry Nyarora
Posted Monday, September 17 2012 at 09:24
Posted Monday, September 17 2012 at 09:24
Foreign Affairs
Minister Sam Ongeri has for the first time revealed the power struggles in
Somalia that led to last week's attempted assassination of President-elect
Hassan Sheikh Mahmud.
The Minister over the
weekend recounted how an attempt by former President Sheikh Sharif to solicit
Kenya's support for re-election failed and which may have prompted the
assassination attempt.
The Islamist militant
group Al-Shabaab has since claimed responsibility for the attack.
“Before the elections,
Mr Sharif had talked with me for one and half hours, requesting that Kenya
support him capture the presidency. But I told him that Kenya did not want to
support any candidate as it wanted a free and fair elections in order to
restore peace among Somali people which they had missed for the last 22 years,”
Prof Ongeri said.
The minister said he
was surprised when he saw the former President Sharif at Aljazeera Palace Hotel
soon after the incident occurred and who appeared unshaken by what had
happened.
“Although Al-Shabaab
has accepted responsibility of the incident, I don’t know whether it was by
coincident that Sharif came to the scene soon event as we held our breath
waiting in the room for a bomb to be detonated,” Prof Ongeri said.
The Minister was
accompanied with MPs Adan Keynan, Fred Kapondi, Mohamed Affey, Hussein Ali, his
personal assistant Jackson Nyagaka and bodyguard a Mr Njagi.
“I believe that God delayed
our arrival in Mogadishu for our own safety. There was no meaningful security
details in the early hours of the day when we were expected to arrive in the
Somali capital since there was peace and calm,” Prof Ongeri recounted.
When he arrived with
his delegation at 1pm, three hours late, he narrated, they attempted to use
ordinary vehicles due to the assurance of calm. But Kenya's envoy to Somali Mr
Wafula Wamunyinyi and General Karanja cautioned them against the move.
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“When you have a high
value target, you cannot afford to go in an ordinary vehicle,” Prof Ongeri
remembers Mr Wamunyi’s warning.
The minister said they
were whisked to Aljazeera Palace Hotel in Armoured Personnel to shield them
from possible explosives.
At the hotel, he said
he had hardly read President Kibaki's goodwill message to President Hassan when
he heard gun shots outside the hotel.
“Although I continued
reading the goodwill message to President Hassan, who remained composed despite
heavy gunshots from outside the hotel, I saw the Kenyan delegation that
included Kenyan journalists taking cover under tables,” Prof Ongeri said.
He added: “I prayed
and I remained calm for I knew God will not allow us perish as we were out for
a good course.”
The worst came when
one of attackers was shot and the explosives he carried detonated, spraying his
flesh and blood to the windows where their meeting was going on.
The Minister said the
four attackers had powerful explosives, one created a big depression at the
entrance of the hotel's compound after detonation.
“But we thank God that
explosives of one of the attackers who was shot near the entrance of the hotel
did not go off as it could have brought down the whole building,” Prof Ongeri
added.
He was addressing his Nyaribari Masaba
constituents in his Omoyo rural home in Borabu District on Sunday.
The Minister urged Somali citizens to support President – elect
Mr Hassan Sheikh Mahmud in efforts to reconstruct the country.