BY SAM ALFAN.
A mother of the alleged mastermind of Dusit D2 terror attack is among suspects detained this evening by a Nairobi court for 30 days to allow Anti-Terror Police Unit of DCI to complete investigations.
Milimani Senior Principal Magistrate Martha Mutuku ordered Sakina Mariam Abdalla the mother of Ali Salim Gichunge and her co-suspects Mandera based Imam Muktar Ibrahim Ali, Ethiopian Issak Hussein to be detained for a month.
Ms Mutuku ruled that there is need to have the suspects detained since terrorism has no boarders and is a matter that concerns national security and public interest.
“I do allow the state to detain the suspects for 30 days in any police station within the country to enable police complete investigations,” ruled the magistrate.
At the same time the third suspect George Kamau Ndung’u was detained for ten days.
Prosecution applied to have Kamau detained for 10 days so that they would establish his whereabouts since he had gone missing from his home in Narok and his family filed a missing persons report with police and only resurfaced on January 17,2019.
Police said that they need more time to probe his phone data so as they can establish who he has been communication with during that period he has been missing.
Prosecution informed the court that detectives require to travel to Narok for further investigations.
In an affidavit filed in court investigating officer Monica Githaiga said that the investigation at Dusit D2 terror attack on January 15,2019 are still on going.
She informed the court that the four suspects likely to face charges of conspiracy to commit a terrorist act, provision of property and services for commission of a terrorist act and being members of a terrorist group.
The court heard that the first respondent Ali is believed to have communicated and facilitated the movement of one of the attackers at Dusit hotel complex from Mandera on January 12,2019.
she said that it is believed that Ali will led the investigators in this matter to narrow down the identity and operation of the attackers at the hotel complex.
The prosecution further said that Ali has several mobile numbers, bank accounts and connection to other possible terrorists.
The court heard that police are investigating his movements from Mandera, Moyale and Nairobi which they believe it can led them to unravel other terrorists.
The prosecution informed the court that the second suspect Hussen who is a Ethiopian was arrested on January 19 in Mandera town in Jamia Mosque while in the company of Ali and purported to be a Quran student.
Hussein is said to have no known place of resident in Kenya and he is a flight risk.
The court heard that Mariam is the mother to one of the attackers and has given information claiming that his son Ali Salim Gichunge disappeared in 2015.
Prosecution said that Gichunge after completing his O level education in Meru he went to Mombasa where he was employed at a cyber cafe before he told the mother that he has gotten a scholarship in Somalia to study religious education.
” The third Respondent’s son was working in a cyber in Mombasa as an attendant but she alleges that the said Salim witch off his mobile phone in 2015 and only called her in the year 2016 informing her that he had gotten a scholarship in Mogadishu in Somalia to study religious Islamic education. That’s is the last she heard of her son until the attack when she saw he son’s picture circulation on social media,”said the prosecution.
Investigating officer Monica Githaiga further informed the court that Mariam has been in constant communication to her son’s wife Violet Kemunto Omwoyo who is still at large.
Githaiga also informed the court that Mariam has disclosed to investigators that her son (Gichunge) after his disappearance in 2015 he only called her early this before the attack.
Mariam who appeared to be emotional when opposing the application to have her detained for 30 days informed the court his son told him that he was not aware that his son was involved in terrorism teaching at all.
Police claim that the four suspects have associates who are yet to be apprehended and their arrest is being vigorous being pursued by securities both within and out the country.
The court heard that intelligence report so far received show that the attackers had other associates who assisted them in planning and execution the attack at the hotel..
