Man arrested over Facebook post on terror attack at Nakuru college

Police arrested Timothy Koech, alias Joseph Langat at Chepngaina village in Township location, Bomet County, on February 16, 2020. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Via Twitter, the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) identified the man as Timothy Koech, alias Joseph Langat.
  • Police said the man was apprehended at Chepngaina village in Township location and will be handed over to the DCI in Nakuru, which has jurisdiction over the case.

Police officers in Bomet County on Sunday arrested a man who wrote a message on Facebook that warned of a terror attack at a college in Nakuru County.

Via Twitter, the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) identified the man as Timothy Koech, alias Joseph Langat.

"Through investigations and intelligence, officers arrested a suspect who had published alarming information as Joseph Langat on Facebook, warning that Al-Shabaab were to bomb [the college],'' a police report stated.

THE WARNING

The post by Langat stated that that was not his real name.

"My original name is Mohamed from Somalia ... Kenyans easily forget," it stated.

"Recently, we killed more than 68 students in Garissa university," it added, saying the attack would be the worst.

The person claimed heavily armed Al-Shabaab militants were in Rongai.

Police said the man was apprehended at Chepngaina village in Township location and will be handed over to the DCI in Nakuru, which has jurisdiction over the case.

THE LAW

The DCI said the man will be investigated over the offence of a hoax, in line with sections 26 and 30 of the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

Section 26 says that "a person who issues any information that a terrorist act has been, or is likely to be committed, knowing that the information is false, commits an offence and is liable, on conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 20 years".

Section 30 says that a person found with an article or information for use in instigating commission or committing an act of terror commits an offence.

Such a person faces the same punishment as the one described in section 26.