Kenyan police are hunting for a British woman who has been using the identity of the widow of one of the suicide bombers who attacked London's transport system, an official said Thursday. Police suspect that she is fundraising for a terrorist group, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information. The suspect has been using a number of identities, including those of Samantha Lewthwaite and Natalie Faye Webb, the official said. Lewthwaite is the widow of Jermaine Lindsay, one of the suicide bombers who killed 52 commuters in multiple bombings of London's transport system on July 7, 2005. British newspapers report that Faye Webb is the victim of identity theft. The official said he cannot confirm if the woman is Lewthwaite herself. Police are working closely with Scotland Yard on the case, he said. Lewthwaite's father, a builder from the town of Aylesbury near London, said that he and the wider family had not heard “for some time” from his daughter. “I just wish she would get in touch with us,” Andy Lewthwaite, 57, told The Sun newspaper. “Samantha would not be involved in anything to do with terrorism. She was badly affected by what happened before and would have nothing to do with it. I am sure of that.” The police official said the woman is suspected to be part of a cell that had been planning to bomb the Kenyan coast in December in retaliation for the Kenyan military incursion into Somalia. Kenya sent troops across the border in October after a series of attacks by Somali gunmen on Kenyan soil. The Kenyan government blamed the attacks on the al-Qaida-affiliated Somali militant group al-Shabab. Al-Shabab threatened to carry out suicide bombings in retaliation, although it has not done so thus far. But Kenya has been hit by a number of grenade and small arms attacks. Police said recently they suspect the killings of over 30 civilians in the past five months were orchestrated by al-Shabab or its sympathizers.
