A local rugby player who plays for Nakuru Rugby Football Club has been arrested for planning to join Al-Shabaab, the police have said.
Javan Morton Murayi, a senior player was on June 10, 2016, arrested by Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) rangers and Administration Police (AP) officers at a borehole in the Jaldesa Community Conservancy in Marsabit.
According to the Director of Criminal Investigations, Ndegwa Muhoro, Murayi was going to join Al-Shabaab in Somalia.
“He was found in possession of many things, including materials used to make explosive devices, a hard drive, several identity cards, a modem and a notebook that contained information on how to destroy buildings,” said Muhoro.
A talented left-winger, Murayi has scored crucial tries for Nakuru RFC and was instrumental in the 7-0 win by the Nakuru club over Pan Africa Strathmore Leos on May 28.
Some of his teammates who spoke on condition of anonymity, described Murayi as an excellent player who never took chances with the ball.
“We are still in shock. I cannot believe these accusations. Javan (Murayi) was a very quiet person. He was always very passionate about the team,” said a teammate who did not wish to be mentioned.
“The last time I saw him was when we played against Strathmore, that’s about two weeks ago. He has not turned up for training since that time. He had a tendency to just go underground. Mara yuko shule, mara ako home, hakua anaeleweka sana. We only learnt about his arrest through the media,” said a team official.
But Nakuru RFC, popularly known as ‘Wanyore,’ are now not very proud of Murayi’s latest ‘tries.’ The club’s chairman, Ali Saleh Al Jabri, has distanced himself and the club from the player’s latest predicament, saying that Murayi was acting on his own.
“We are not associated in any way with whatever Javan was doing at the time of his arrest,” said Ali.
“He was arrested out there, on his own capacity as a private citizen. What has that to do with rugby, a game that is only played on the pitch?” posed Ali during a phone interview.
With the news doing rounds, Ali quickly called Wanyore’s top decision-making organ to an emergency board meeting over the fate of their player, who is now in police custody, 520 kilometers away in Marsabit County.
After the board meeting, Nakuru RFC sent a press statement to newsrooms signed by Ali, stating that Murayi “showed no overt signs of radicalisation nor extremist tendencies that would have raised any alarm at the club or among his teammates.’
In his statement, Ali expressed solidarity with the Kenya Defence Forces soldiers in Somalia, adding that as a club, they do not condone any activities that jeopardises the security of the country.
The statement read in part: “We are particularly concerned that sports events have been considered soft targets by terrorists in the past, and it is therefore our firm resolution that any attempt to infuse terrorist activities into our sports or any other facet of society must be condemned in the strongest possible terms.”