Police say gang that lived near US embassy in
Nairobi was " preparing to raid the country' s
communication systems ".
Kenyan police have arrested 77 Chinese nationals
and are consulting experts to see if they used
advanced communications equipment in several
houses in an upscale Nairobi neighbourhood to
commit espionage .
Kenya 's foreign ministry has also summoned
China' s top diplomat in the capital Nairobi as it
seeks to establish if Beijing was in anyway linked
to the affair.
Police said they believed the gang was "preparing
to raid the country' s communication systems ".
The Daily Nation newspaper said a series of police
raids had turned up equipment capable of
infiltrating bank accounts and government servers,
Kenya 's M -Pesa mobile banking system and ATM
machines .
"The suspects are being interrogated to establish
their mission in the country and what they wanted
to do with the communication gadgets . They
have been charged in court, " said the director of
Kenya 's Criminal Investigation Department,
Ndegwa Muhoro .
"We have roped in experts to tell us if they were
committing crimes of espionage , '' he told the
Associated Press news agency .
Police said many of those detained appeared to
have been in the country illegally.
The arrests began on Sunday , when computer
equipment in one of the upscale houses the
Chinese nationals had rented near the US Embassy
and UN headquarters caught fire , killing one
person.
Kenyan foreign minister Amina Mohamed " made it
clear that the Chinese government should fully
cooperate on this matter, " Kenya 's
communications minister Fred Matiang 'i said ,
adding that China has promised to send
investigators to Kenya to work on the case .
Police said it appeared the group was also
manufacturing ATM cards , and that the suspects
may have been involved in money laundering and
Internet fraud .
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