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Police in the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa Kenya have arrested a man who walked into a church and confessed to being a member of militant Islamist group al-Shabab.

Local media reports say the pastor decided to call the police after the unidentified man admitted to having recently been in Somalia, the headquarters of the al-Qaeda-linked militants.

On Tuesday, a court in the coastal city ordered the suspect to be detained for 10 more days to enable police complete their investigations.

Kenya’s local daily newspaper, The Standard, quoted prosecutors as saying that the suspect was willing to provide investigators with information that could lead to the arrest of suspected militants.

Prosecutors have declined to name the individual, pastor or the church at the centre of the story.

Under canonical laws, Catholic priests are forbidden from divulging the details of any confession which is considered one of the seven sacraments of the Church.

But the same laws do not apply to protestant or evangelical movements which do not embrace penance as a rite.