FBI director Christopher Wray visits Kenya as anti-crime war intensifies

After lingering speculation on the intended purpose of his five-day visit, Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Director Christopher Asher Wray has left the country as quietly as he arrived last week.

Wray, who has been at the helm since August 2, 2017, has been holding private, separate meetings in Nairobi with senior security agencies, among them the Director of National Intelligence Noordin Haji and Director of Criminal Investigations Amin Mohamed.

He also met with Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) chief executive Twalib Mbarak and Director of Public Prosecutions Renson Ingonga for engagements in areas of mutual interest.

EACC HOSTS DIRECTOR OF THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION (FBI) MR. CHRISTOPHER WRAY

EACC CEO, Mr. Twalib Mbarak, on Tuesday 11th June 2024, hosted the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Mr. Christopher Wray who paid a courtesy visit to the Commission at… pic.twitter.com/2WG5Pzj6aX

— EACC (@EACCKenya) June 12, 2024

During his meeting with Amin, Wray said his visit was largely to get Kenya's perspective as a continental leader on the threats facing the region and discuss more ways of collaboration.

"The partnership represented here is one of the closest the FBI has, and we have spent the morning discussing the threats from each of our perspectives, and I am encouraged to hear how many areas of overlap there are among our priorities and focus," he said in a brief press briefing at the DCI headquarters in Nairobi on Tuesday morning.

The FBI is the lead federal agency tasked with investigating and neutralising cyber-attacks, terrorism, espionage, white collar, violent, and organised crimes in the US and externally, in partnership with international agencies and governments.

"I have said before that bad guys are not constrained by international borders, so the good guys should not be either. Together, we are leveraging our collective insights, authorities, and perspectives and making a huge impact on the threats we are facing. Terrorism, of course, is very much at the top amongst them," he also said during the briefing.

Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Director Christopher Asher Wray during a press conference at the DCI Headquarters in Nairobi on June 12, 2024, with EACC boss Twalib Mbarak. (Photo: EV)

Extradition agreement

Amin noted that Kenya has an active extradition agreement with the US for wanted persons.

Last year, its agents in Nairobi, in collaboration with Kenyan security officials, arrested Kareem Nasr (23) from Lawrenceville, New Jersey, who was said to have left Egypt and to have been planning to meet with Al-Shabaab members in Somalia.

He was extradited to New York to face charges of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organisation.

Amin further said the directorate was seeking to use its long relationship with the FBI to strengthen collaboration in the fight against transnational organised crime, mainly transnational crimes such as terrorism, cybercrime, money laundering, human trafficking, corruption, and crimes against children.

Director of Criminal Investigations Amin Mohamed during a press conference at the DCI headquarters in Nairobi on June 12, 2024, with Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Director Christopher Asher Wray. (Photo: EV)

The partnership, Amin said, has been sustained through intelligence sharing, training and equipping of our detectives.

In the past, Kenya has invested immensely in upskilling its detectives amid the ever-changing security landscape.

One of the notable initiatives was the training of 42 detectives and intelligence officers trained in counter-terrorism at the FBI academy in Quantico, Virginia.

"The US Department of State and our FBI partnered to support Kenya in creating the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) in Kenya, which was the first to be established outside the US territory, mainly through the efforts of the State Department of Counter Terrorism under the Counter Terrorism Partnership Fund," Amin said.

"Some of the successful counter-terrorism investigative stories by the JTTF saw the suspects behind the successful conviction of the suspects behind the Dusit attack."

Director of Criminal Investigations Amin Mohamed and Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Director Christopher Asher Wray plant a tree during their engagement at the DCI headquarters in Nairobi on June 12, 2024. (Photo: EV)

Training

The initiative was established after the January 16, 2019, Dusit Complex attack that pressed the need to establish the JTTF through the FBI's training expertise that benefited the 42 detectives in 2020, combined with the State Department's Bureau of CT's capacity-building efforts.

Plans for more training on modern investigative and intelligence techniques are in progress.

"The support for the DCI does not end at training but also extends to the provision of modern equipment and weapons," the DCI boss said.

Donations in the past have been of Child Adolescent Forensic Interview (CAFI) kits in honour of FBI Special Agents Dan Alfin and Laura Schwartzenberger, who devoted their careers to investigating crimes against children and were murdered on February 2, 2022, while serving a search warrant in a crime against children investigation in Florida, USA.

The FBI Director appreciated the ODPP's role in the delivery of justice and offered support in ensuring that mandate is delivered.

He praised Kenya as an “international leader in the fight against terrorism” and stressed the need for a working relationship between the two… pic.twitter.com/6YItkhHWwx

— Office of The Director Of Public Prosecutions (@ODPP_KE) June 12, 2024

The kits were issued to the Anti-Human Trafficking and Child Protection Unit (AHTCPU), which had identified them as essential in furthering investigations into cases targeting children.

"The kits have so far enabled children protection officers to send for prosecution water-tight cases against persons who abuse children," said Amin.

During Wray's engagement with the EACC boss, they explored ways of leveraging information sharing to help trace and recover corruptly acquired assets stashed abroad.

"Today marks a major milestone as we seek to deepen our partnership and explore areas of collaboration. With technical support from the FBI, the commission will have a greater impact on investigating high-impact cases and robustly pursue recovery of corruptly acquired assets and unexplained wealth," Twalib said.

Wray also visited the Dusit Complex, the Nairobi National Park and a few malls during his hushed stay in the country.