Kenyans arrested by Ethiopia

Three Kenyans allegedly abducted by Ethiopians on 14 January were arrested by Ethiopian authorities. Kenyan North Eastern provincial police boss Samuel Kilemi said the three men were safe and had been arrested by the Ethiopian authorities for possessing “offensive publications”, Kenyan state radio said on 18 January. Kilemi said the Mandera district security committee, north eastern province, is currently holding discussions on the best way of securing the release of the three, said the report, monitored by the BBC. Kenyan residents in the border area around Moyale have demonstrated this week against raids by Ethiopian militia, in which 10 people were killed and demanded official action. A meeting held on Wednesday between the Kenyan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Boyana Godana, and Ethiopian embassy officials agreed to investigate and resolve the border problems, the Kenyan press said on 18 January. Meanwhile, spokesman for the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), Lencho Bati told IRIN by telephone that the organisation had sent a letter to the Kenyan government this week in response to events on the Kenyan-Ethiopian border. He said the letter condemned the actions of the Ethiopian government against Kenyan citizens and said the OLF had “a good working relationship” with the Kenyan government. He said that the Ethiopian government “can only speak on behalf of its own government, not Kenya” when it labelled the organisation “terrorists”. Bati said he “categorically denied” that the OLF had any military bases in Kenya, but said the Oromos lived on both sides of the border and were closely related to ethnic groups living in Kenya: “You cannot stop these two people meeting each other.” Ethiopian officials told IRIN that both Ethiopia and Kenya considered the OLF “terrorists”.