Kenya's Deputy President William Ruto appeared on Monday to blame the wave of terror attacks on judges who have given bail to terror suspects as public anger increased, the Associated Press reported.
According to Ruto, the terror suspects Jamal Mohammed Awadh and Suleiman Mohammed Sayyed were free on bail when they died Saturday carrying out attacks on the Kenyan coast, according to the AP. The men's families both say the two men were not involved and had not been charged.
"We believe that there is more that the judiciary can do," Ruto said, in regards to the lenient bails given by judges, the AP reported. "We call on the judiciary to be a strong partner in the war against terror. We call on all players in the justice, law and order sector to stand with Kenyans. The Constitution provides a robust framework of civil liberties, which all Kenyans are meant to enjoy. The liberties must work for Kenyans, not against Kenyans."
The families of Awadh and Sayyed held a press conference in the coastal city of Mombasa on Monday and said they were victims of Saturday's blast at a bus stop, according to the AP.
"We demand the state to apologize for profiling innocent people," said Sayyed's mother, Leila Athufa, the AP reported. Hussein Khalid, director of the rights group Haki Africa, said the two men were working at the bus stop where the explosion took place and court records did not indicate they had been arrested or charged.
Ruto said another terror suspect Fuad Abubakar Maswab is believed to have fled to Somalia while out on $116,000 bail and is only one of 22 other suspects accused of terrorism who are out on bail and roaming freely in the country, the AP reported.
Fuad is accused of planning attacks over Christmas and New Year's in 2011 accompanied by two British suspects: Jermaine Grant, who has been remanded while his case is being heard, was found with explosives, and Samantha Lewthwaite, who is still on the run, according to the AP.
Terror attacks have intensified in Kenya since it sent troops to Somalia in 2011 with the latest occurring on Saturday where two blasts on Kenya's coast killed four, and on Sunday, when bombs went off on two public buses, killing three, the AP reported.
Over the past week, Kenyan officials have arrested ethnic Somalis in a g reaction to the attacks.
The security sweep of ethnic Somalis, who have been arrested over the past week as a reaction to the attacks, is being criticized by human rights groups who say officials have carried out abuses and are profiling Somalis, according to the AP.
Kenyan police deny those allegations and say the operation "is aimed at weeding out terrorists and illegal aliens blamed for smuggling small arms and other weapons into Kenya through its porous borders," the AP reported.
