Journalist Laban Cliff Onserio arrested in possession of grenade at Holy Family Basilica

Television journalist and Standard Group Chief of Staff Laban Cliff Onserio is currently held by detectives from the Anti-Terror Police Unit (ATPU) for being in possession of a grenade and threatening to use it to attack security guards.

Onserio was arrested on Sunday morning at the Holy Family Basilica basement by detectives who were called in by the church’s security guards after an altercation.

“(He) was arrested on 18/12/2022 by a multi-agency team who responded at the scene after receiving information through IC3 police control room that there was a terror threat at Holy Family Basilica,” reads court documents.

It is said that the journalist, who formerly served as Deputy Communications Director at State House’s Presidential Delivery Unit (PDU), had gone to pick up his car – a Nissan X-trail registration number KDE 744A – at the cathedral’s commercial parking lot on Sunday morning.

During the quarrel, the guards called detectives who conducted a search on Onserio’s car, where they found a stun grenade.

Detectives say the journalist “could not give satisfactory reasons why he was in possession of the flash bang grenade” nor produce a certificate allowing him to be in possession of the device.

“At the time of arrest, the respondent had not made a declaration to the security guards that he was in possession of the flash bang training system grenade,” the anti-terror police unit said.

Onserio told detectives that he had acquired the grenade from British national Don Smith, purportedly working with Fly 540 airline, in 2021.

The ATPU in an affidavit filed at the Kahawa Law Courts seeks to detain Onserio for five days pending conclusion of investigations.