Kenya arrests two over 'IS' bomb plot

Kenyan police said Wednesday they had arrested two suspected members of an Islamic State affiliate plotting bomb attacks, weeks after arresting other members of the alleged gang.

Police claimed that the two men, Kiguzo Mwangolo Mgutu and Abubakar Jillo Mohammed, had been radicalized in a mosque in a slum in the capital Nairobi, where they were recruited into the Islamic State group (IS), which they said "is seeking to establish itself in Kenya."

The two men are alleged to have been plotting revenge attacks after Mohammed Abdi Ali, the alleged leader of the group and a medical student, was arrested earlier this month along with two others for allegedly planning an anthrax attack. They have not yet been charged.

"Following Mohamed Abdi Ali's arrest, members of his network have been planning retaliatory attacks using home-made explosives," police said.

"The arrest of the two has foiled terror attacks with explosives and other weapons that were planned for Nairobi and Mombasa."

Materials seized suggested the pair had been plotting bombings, with kit taken for forensic analysis including "nails, ball bearings, batteries, electrical wire, fertiliser, cell phones and other suspected explosive substances," police added.

While the Somali-led and Al-Qaeda linked Shebab has been active in Kenya since 2011, after the Kenyan army was deployed in southern Somalia, there has been little evidence to date of an IS presence in the country.