Eight Kenyans who had been fighting with Somali Separatists and who had bee held in Ethiopia, were early Saturday morning returned home to Kenya.

The eight Kenyans, who were repatriated to Somalia after saying they were not Kenyan, had been arrested at the Kenya-Somali border as they tried to re-enter the country while serving as soldiers for a guerilla group that was attempting to overthrow the legally formed Government of Somalia.

They denied they were Kenyan and together with another 70 plus foreigners, were returned to Somalia.

Government spokesperson Alfred Mutua said that despite earlier claims by some people that the Government had deported 30 to 40 Kenyans, it is clear that only eight Kenyans, all of them suspected terrorists, were the only Kenyans held in Ethiopia.

" The Government never deported any known Kenyans froms from this country." He said 

The eight who were suspects flown to secret jails in Ethiopia about two years ago for questioning over terrorism links have returned to Kenya after a thorough verification exercise positively established their identity as Kenyan, police confirmed on Saturday.

Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe who did not say whether the repatriated men will faces charges in the country said the suspects were flown back after strict verification exercise.

"All Kenyan terror suspects have reunited with their families now. This was done after a strict verification exercise. They are now with their families or mothers," Kiraithe said.

Kiraithe said the ninth Kenyan arrested separately but held in the same prison has not returned.

He did not say whether the man has links to Al-Qaeda network.

Kenyan authorities arrested at least 150 men, women, and children from more than 18 countries, including the United States, Britain and Canada, in operations near the Somali border and held them for weeks without charges in Nairobi.

The United States and other intelligence services interrogated several foreign nationals while they were being detained in Nairobi and Ethiopia, where they were denied access to legal counsel and their consular representatives, rights groups have said.

Sources within the security forces said the Kenyan government has insisted even the eight linked to the dreaded Al-Qaeda's point man in East Africa suspected to have masterminded the 1997 bomb attack in Nairobi, will remain on the police radar as the next course of action is considered.

Apart from confessions of training under the Mujahidin program in war-torn Somalia, one of them even admitted he chauffeured Abdul Mohammed Fazul, who last month escaped police dragnet in the Coast.

Fazul, who is also on the U.S. most-wanted list returned in August to seek treatment for a kidney ailment.

The return of the terror suspects stirred the painful memories of the 1997 bomb, which uprooted the U.S. embassy, killing at least 250 people, shattering several adjacent buildings, and forced the country into the realms of global terrorist hot-zones.

The move also rekindled memories of the Kikambala Hotel suicide bomb attack in 2002, and the attempt to bring down an Israeli plane on the Kenyan Coast the same day.

"Investigation revealed these Kenyans had traveled to Somalia in 2006 to get militia training and were recruited into terrorist cells by international terrorists operating in southern Somalia," the newspaper said.

In order to ascertain the nationalities of the nine Kenyans, the government dispatched a verification team to Ethiopia comprising immigration and security officers to interview this group for a second time.

This was because on their arrest at Kiunga, and out of fear or reprisal they claimed they were from Somalia and that was why they were deported.

It is now confirmed that the nine persons are the Kenyans found in Ethiopian custody.

Having verified their status, the government made arrangements with the Ethiopia authorities for their return to Kenya.

They are:

1.         Swaleh Ali Tunzi

2.         Bashir Hussein Mohammed Sader Aka Chirag

3.         Kassim  Musa Mwarusi

4.         Ali Musa Mwarusi

5.         Abdalla Khalifan Tondwe

6.         Hassan Shaban Mwasume

7.         Said Hamisi Mohamed Aka Star

8.         Salim Awadh Salim

9.         Abdulrashid Mohamed

Sixteen other Kenyans were inadvertently caught in a war between Somali Islamic fundamentalists and Ethiopian forces between December 2006 and January last year.

After police interrogation, they were all assisted to return to their homes in North Eastern, Nairobi and Coast provinces.

The government also released the names of 70 foreign nationals, who were screened and deported.