By Daniel Wallis

NAIROBI, July 6 (Reuters) - Kenyan Muslims called on Friday for the return of what they say were terrorism suspects seized illegally and deported in chains to Somalia, Ethiopia and Guantanamo Bay.

Kenyan police arrested scores of people on the Somali border in January and February after an Islamic courts movement was chased out of Mogadishu by Somali government forces and Ethiopian tanks, troops and warplanes.

Human rights groups say the captives came from 18 countries, including Britain and the United States, and were subjected to a secret detention programme that could erode international support for the U.S. war on terrorism.

"We've tried to trail them to date but it has been difficult," Al-Amin Kimathi, chairman of Kenya's Muslim Human Rights Forum, said of the detainees.

"There is a big veil of silence and secrecy over this issue. We want this sordid business sorted out."

Kenya's government had no immediate comment on the matter.

Human rights groups say dozens of suspects were flown from Kenya to the Somali capital in shackles, and some were then transferred to Addis Ababa.

Some were questioned in Kenya and Ethiopia by intelligence officials from several nations including the United States.

U.S. forces have launched air strikes this year targeting al Qaeda targets in Somalia thought to include three suspects in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 240 people.

Rights advocates contend Washington has had a great deal of influence in the region, and say Kenya appears to have followed the clandestine U.S. practice of detainee transfer known as rendition.

Many Kenyans were among those arrested, and local activists are angry none were prosecuted by Kenyan courts.

"Whether terrorists or not, there are legal mechanisms to bring them to account," Maina Kiai, chairman of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) told reporters.

"You don't send them to theatres where there is risk of torture, war or death."

KNCHR would hold a series of public inquiries on security issues, including the deportations, starting in August, he said.

Among the Kenyans detained fleeing Somalia was Abdul Malik, who was transferred to Guantanamo Bay in March.

A U.S. statement said he had admitted taking part in a 2002 hotel bombing near Mombasa that killed 15 and an attempt the same day to shoot down an Israeli airliner carrying 271 passengers.

Kimathi said Kenya should demand he face trial at home.

"The government must act," he said. "The fear is that others might find their way to Guantanamo, or Somalia or Djibouti or one of these other detention centres on the extraordinary rendition route."

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