One of Kenya’s most wanted terror suspects, Fatuma
Mohamed Masou, who had a Sh2 million bounty on her head, was found dead in Kedong, Kenya.
On the run since September last year, her body
was found in Kedong, near Naivasha, more than a month ago, but the
police officers who stumbled upon her remains did not immediately
identify her.
Her family did not show up for the brief
burial ceremony at the Naivasha Muslim cemetery, but instead asked
well-wishers to inter her remains.
Police put a bounty
on Ms Masou’s head after they accused her of hiding yet another
terrorist, Ishmael Shosi, who was killed in September last year during a
raid in Mombasa.
They believed she was armed, dangerous and closely linked to jihadist networks in Somalia and the region. Although
she was arrested soon after her husband’s death in 2013, she was
released after denying before a magistrate that she had been found in
possession of assorted firearms, including two hand grenades and a gun.
And then, about a month ago, police officers stumbled upon two bodies in a field in Kedong, Naivasha.
After
fingerprint identification, it turned out that the two were some of
Kenya’s most wanted fugitives, said local police boss Titus Mathuku. The
other was Farid Omar Awadh, also on the police wanted list.
A
Naivasha-based Muslim preacher, Adam Ali Hassan, on Sunday said family
members had positively identified the two bodies before they were buried
at the Naivasha Muslim cemetery.
“The family of Awadh came and positively identified the body,” said Mr Hassan. “We also got in touch with the family of Masou and, after giving them her physical descriptions, they confirmed that she was the one. They have given us the go-ahead to bury her.”As news of her death sunk in on Sunday, police officers said they were also holding two men suspected of being Al-Shabaab militants sent by the terrorist organisation to launch attacks in Kenya during the Easter season.
Juma Mwangoh Athman, 24, was arrested Friday
evening at his house in Shika Adabu, Likoni, after a raid by the
Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU).
Two hand grenades,
pouches of an AK-47 rifle, a jungle jacket, 10 rounds of ammunition and
one pair of binoculars were found in the house.
Coast regional CID boss Pius Macharia said his officers had been monitoring the suspect for some time.
“We are now questioning him to establish whether he has been involved in other terror-related activities,” said Mr Macharia.
The
other suspect, Stephen Wagechi, was nabbed while sneaking into Mandera
from Bula Hawa in Somalia. He recently converted to Islam and assumed
the name Mohammed.
According to a police report seen by the Nation,
Wagechi was born in Thika and was converted to Islam in 2014 at Jomo
Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology by a Mr Yusuf, who was
also a student at the campus. He is expected in court on Tuesday.
The
arrests come a day after police released a list of nine suspected
terrorists that they said may either have sneaked into Kenya from
Somalia or are in the final stages of planning
They are Habib Karongo, alias Jureyj; Juma Were; Mohamed Tajir; Abdullahi Jarso Kotola; Gufu Tari Gufu; and Ahmed Said Omar.
Others are Abubakar Abdikadir Abubakar; Issa Abdalla Kauni; and Fuad Abubakar Manswab.
Manswab
is a close associate of one of the Western world’s most wanted terror
suspects, Samantha Lewthwaite, and has been on international and local
police radar since 2011.
He was first arrested
alongside British terror suspect Jermaine Grant in December 2011, the
same night Lewthwaite escaped a police dragnet in Kisauni, Mombasa.
Source: The Nation Kenya
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