Arrest made over murder of UK gemstone expert in Kenya

August 19, 2009

Police in Kenya have arrested a man thought to be the organiser of an attack by up to 30 men armed with clubs and spears that killed internationally renowned Scottish gemstone expert Campbell Bridges.

The 71-year-old was ambushed last week near Voi where he owns several mines. The attack left two security guards badly injured. Bridges' family had received death threats for years over a dispute over access to his gemstone mines.

Regional police chief Herbert Khaemba anounced today: "The suspect believed to be the main organiser of the brutal murder was arrested by the police at the Kenyan border town of Taveta in hiding. The police are still pursuing other suspects who were armed with crude weapons during the attack."

The arrested man is reported to be the chairman of a group of local small-scale miners. He is thought to have been intending to flee to neighbouring Tanzania. The area's minerals have been disputed ever since Bridges discovered the locally unique stone Tsavorite in the 1960s.