By The Standard on Saturday Reporter

Police are on high alert as the force investigates claims that Prime Minister Raila Odinga could be targeted in a terrorist attack.

An alert which in the Force’s language is called ‘Situation Report’ dispatched last week to all the heads of police divisions in Nairobi, briefs the recipients on, "alleged plans to sabotage a helicopter the Prime Minister would be using to facilitate a crash’’.

A copy shown The Standard on Saturday, and signed by the Nairobi police boss Mr Njue Njagi, though silent on how the threat was reported, describes the motive: "This is out of the annoyance that Kenya continues to cooperate with the US in the campaign against terror.’’

Njagi concedes in the alert ‘precautionary measures are necessary’, and ordered all division commanders, "to ensure that security is on high alert and investigate the report seriously."

The PM spokesman Dennis Onyango said Raila is aware of the reported threat and is taking the matter seriously. He said the PM had also received a threatening SMS on his cell phone.

"The PM has seen the police situation report and he was concerned about it this morning when he took off to Kitale and shared it with some of his colleagues telling them they needed to know there could be danger in the air even as they accompanied him," said Onyango.

Onyango added that the PM plans to record a statement with police regarding the SMS he received. Though public figures often get similar messages from pranksters, it was not clear if this was one such.

When contacted Njagi refused to comment on the issue. Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe too declined to comment on the matter saying he could not discuss the PM’s security in the media.

Such terror threats, if any, are usually collected from informers who feed the intelligence reports to the police and the National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS) on a daily basis.

Depending on the nature and credibility of information given out, senior security officers receive and share it with their juniors for action. It is the Criminal Intelligence Unit wing of CID that is said to have received the alleged threats against Raila.

Our enquiries found out the PM has been advised to use the military helicopters in his operations whenever he wishes. This is because the chopper he usually uses is "predictable" and "distinct" and could be easily targeted, a well-placed source revealed on Friday.

"We were also concerned that he uses one chopper that is usually insecure and can be targeted by criminals. There are sound army choppers at his disposal," said the senior officer.

The matter was being taken seriously in the PM office given that Raila on Friday began a four-day tour of Western and Nyanza provinces. He will mostly travel by air as he did on Friday.

In the same communiquÈ Njagi raised concern over increasing activities by Mungiki sect adherents in Dagoretti area, who he said have been demanding protection fees.

He said the sect members planned to administer an oath dubbed Shine ya Thafina to new recruits in Ndunyu area near Jediwa petrol station on February 8, and ordered for deployment of adequate police to carry out an operation and arrest those behind the event.

Several Mungiki suspects were arrested in the operation. It is not clear if Raila has agreed to start using Army choppers in his movements given he had in the past complained access was limited.

The security concern came up as some of the officers who monitor his movements complained that the commercial helicopter is usually parked at the Wilson Airport, where "total" security is not guaranteed.

The communiquÈ came at a time when some of the security personnel seconded to the PM have been complaining of receiving conflicting instructions from their seniors.

The pool that protects the PM is drawn from different units of the police force and prisons department. There are some officers from the General Service Unit, regular and Prisons. They all however take ‘separate’ orders from their respective supervisors.

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