By Andrew Ross

NAIROBI, Kenya

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has expressed “surprise” over claims of a Kenyan cabinet secretary linking its staff members with terrorism in Kenya.

On Sunday, Kenya’s Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery accused UNHCR members of aiding terrorists at the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya’s northeastern province. Addressing a UNHCR meeting in Geneva, Nkaissery also linked the UN body’s staff to the 2013 Westgate terrorist attack in Kenya.

The Westgate shopping mall attack occurred in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi on September 21, 2013 that killed 67 people, including four suspected attackers and 19 foreigners. Al-Shabab claimed the attack, saying it was in retribution to the activities being carried out by Kenyan defense forces in Somalia.

The Kenyan government official said that Kenyan police had arrested four al-Shabab suspects in Dadaab camp along with an assortment of weapons and bomb-making materials; links between them and the UNHCR staff had now been established, he added.

UNHCR Senior Communications Officer Karin de Gruijl said that the UN body was “very surprised” by the Kenyan minister’s allegations.

“We were very surprised by these comments and we are not aware of any other allegations than that…if they have any substantiated allegations we would expect the Kenyan government to inform us and then of course the law should be applied,” the spokeswoman told the Anadolu Agency on Wednesday.

In the Sunday Geneva meeting, Nkaissery said: "The planning of the Westgate attack was finalized in the camps; the weapons used in the attack on Garissa University College earlier this year were ferried and hidden in the camps.

“This reality, uncomfortable as it may be, must be addressed, we cannot, as a country, continue to offer asylum and protection to populations in areas that have been taken over by criminal element,” the Kenyan official added.

The Dadaab camp currently hosts over 420,000 Somali refugees in Kenya. In April this year, the east African country threatened to close down the camp after the killings of more than 140 students by al-Shabab militiamen at the Garissa University College.

The al-Shabab militant group, believed to be based in Somali and affiliated with Al Qaeda, has vowed to carry out more attacks on Kenyan soil unless Kenya security forces pull out of Somalia. Kenyan forces launched a military operation in Somalia to rid the country off al-Shabab on October 16, 2011 after a string of kidnappings targeted tourists and aid workers in Kenya.