NAIROBI, June 22 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan authorities said Thursday they had detained two Somali deputy ministers who entered the east African nation unlawfully.
Police spokesman Gideon Kibunjah confirmed that Abdiqasi Maalim Hassan, who is an assistant minister in the Ministry of Telecommunication, and his Agriculture counterpart Ismail Abdi Mohammed, are being held in Mandera, northern Kenya, for flouting immigration laws.
"The two who were arrested while traveling to Nairobi at a police road block in Mandera town on Wednesday are being held by immigration officials," Kibunja told Xinhua by telephone.
The two, however, reportedly denied claims that they entered the country illegally, noting that they were on a mission to reconcile the warring clans at the Somalia/Kenya border.
"We entered Kenya through Wilson Airport in Nairobi and proceeded to Elwak in Mandera to reconcile the Garre clan of Kenya and the Marihan clan of Somalia," Hassan reportedly said.
Kenya's northern frontier districts have often borne the brunt of insecurity with militia from neighboring Somalia and Ethiopia carrying out raids on Kenyan villages.
Fighting is common in Kenya's poor and arid east and north where the mainly pastoral clans fight mainly for water and pasture.
The arrest comes barely a fortnight after a warlord from Somalia, behind the spate of violence in Mogadishu, was arrested in Nairobi and deported.
It also comes after the East African states agreed to isolate leaders of armed factions in Somalia by imposing a regional travel ban on them and freezing their assets in a bid to help the nation's fledgling transitional federal government restore stability.
Kenya took the lead last week, imposing sanctions against Somalia's so-called "warlords" after they and their militia were driven out of Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, by forces loyal to the city’s Islamic courts.
The faction leaders were accused of being the main stumbling block in efforts to re-establish a government in Somalia, where anarchy has reigned since the overthrow in 1991 of the administration led by Muhammad Siad Barre. Enditem
