A Somali MP and two Kenyans were yesterday found murdered in a forest near Nairobi.

Mr Ibrahim Ali Abdulleh was a delegate to the Somali peace talks going on at the Kenya College of Communication Technology (KCCT) in Mbagathi, Nairobi. 

The Kenyans were Mr Hassan Abdurahman Mohammed, a prominent cross-border businessman, and his driver, Mr Mohammed Eley. They were murdered on Saturday night.

All three were shot in the head, just above the right ear raising speculation that they were executed. Two of the bodies were dumped at a roadside within Oloolua Forest, near Ngong Town, while the third was found 500 metres away on the side of yet another road. 

Delegates at the conference who were interviewed said the murder could have been politically motivated. 

Sources told the Nation that Mr Mohammed was a well known financier of the Transitional National Government (TNG), one of the groups that have for the last one year been seeking a peaceful solution to the war in Somalia.

The TNG delegation, led by the head of the defunct interim government Abdi Kassim Salat, walked out of the talks for the second time last month

A Ministry of Foreign Affairs representative at the Somali talks, Mr James N. Kiboi, urged restraint until police completed their investigations.

Mr Kiboi asked the delegates to let police solve the mystery.

The TNG Minister for Marine Transport and Ports, Mr Abdallah Boss Ahmed, declined to comment on the possible motive for the murders saying they would await the conclusion of police investigations.

Mr Ahmed, speaking in Nairobi, said it was sad that Mr Abdulleh was eliminated at the crucial time of the Somali peace talks.

He said Mr Abdulleh was a key figure in the negotiations and had played an important role in the peace negotiations.

Mr Abdulleh was among the first members of the TNG who formed a committee to negotiate peace for Somalia.

"He mediated between warring clans; he was one of the peace makers, and I am urging for calm as we wait for more information regarding the death," Mr Ahmed said.

Mr Abdulleh was a contractor and a transporter and ferried World Food Programme donations to the starving population in Somalia, the minister said.

Mr Ahmed sent a message of condolences to the bereaved families, on behalf of TNG.

The minister said the car which the deceased were travelling in was missing by yesterday afternoon.

The Kajiado police boss Mr James Omiya said there were no signs of a struggle at the scene where the bodies were found giving rise to speculation that the bodies may have been dumped their after they were shot.

There was also very little blood at the scene indicating that they had been shot elsewhere before they were dumped on the isolated road which leads away from the Kenya Primate Research Institute towards the Ngong Forest .

He said no documents were recovered from the bodies.

The Somali peace talks started a year ago in Eldoret but were later transferred to Mbagathi Nairobi.

The Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) -mediated draws delegates from warring groupings led by several warlords in Somalia with observers from various diplomatic missions.

A draft federal charter signed in July has divided delegates into two, with some threatening to pull out.

In August Kenya's special envoy to Somalia Mr Mohammed Abdi Affey visited Mogadishu in a bid to convince the TNG and other leaders to return for the negotiations.

They had left the talks late July complaining that IGAD and regional states had conspired to break up Somalia and curtail the state of Islam and Arabic, through a draft charter on federalism signed at Mbagathi early June.

Last month, principal warlords and faction leaders ended the boycott, while in Nairobi.

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