Kenya police arrest man over UK geologist murder

NAIROBI Aug 19 (Reuters) - Kenyan police said on Wednesday they had arrested a man suspected of being behind the killing of an internationally renowned Scottish gemstone expert in a mining dispute.

Campbell Bridges, a 71-year-old geologist and gemmologist, was killed by a mob last week near the southern town of Voi, where he owned several gemstone mines.

"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," said Herbert Khaemba, police commander in the Taita-Taveta region where the killing took place.

"The police are still pursuing other suspects who were armed with crude weapons during the attack."

He said the suspect was the chairman of small-scale miners in the area and led the group that attacked Bridges over a mining dispute.

The geologist is credited with discovering the green tsavorite gemstone in the late 1960s in the bushland on the nearby border with neighbouring Tanzania, according to the New York-based International Colored Gemstone Association (ICA). [ID:nLC023021] (Reporting by Humphrey Malalo)

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