Explosives detectionKenya police: (fake) bomb detectors work, making Kenyans safer
A British businessman was convicted of selling Iraq and Afghanistan fake bomb detectors – the two countries used millions of dollars in U.S. aid money to purchase the sham devices (the devices were, in fact, $20 golf ball finders which the businessman sold for $40,000 each). The police in Kenya purchased twenty-six of the sham detectors, but Nairobi police chief says the devices work, and that Kenya is safer for them.
Fraudulent 'bomb detector' similar to those sold by McCormick // Source: presstv.ir
Kenyan police is trying to reassure Kenyans that the bomb and drug detectors the police have in stock do work as intended. The reassurance is needed after the conviction of a British businessman who was busted for selling the fake bomb detectors which the Kenyan police is using.
The BBC reports that the police carried out a public demonstration in Nairobi, in which the detector located narcotics. The police would not say where they purchased the detectors.
The detectors look identical to the ones that James McCormick sold to Iraq, Afghanistan, and several other countries. McCormick told the court during his trial that he sold the devices — which he knew did not work — to police in Kenya.
Scientists testified in court that the detectors were completely useless and lacked any grounding in science. The detectors were, in fact, golf-ball finders which McCormick bought in the United States for $20 each, then repackaged and sold them, for $40,000 each, as bomb and drug detectors. The devices had no working electronics, and engineers testified that none of the device’s components had any sensitivity to the presence of explosives or drugs.
Despite the court’s findings, Nairobi police chief Benson Githinji is confident that the detectors the police force uses work perfectly.
“Let me assure Nairobians, the machines in use are serviceable and don’t fall short… They are in operation and they work,” Githinji told BBC.
Benson said the detectors are a main reason why there has not been a successful grenade attacks in the city for quite some time. There had been a rash of grenade attacks since late 2011, when Kenya sent troops into Somalia to battle the al-Shabab militant organization.
U.K. police told theBBC that Kenya purchased twenty-six of the detectors in May 2004, but Benson would not corroborate that information or say when the detectors were purchased.
