Terror suspect in Majengo police raid surrenders

One of the four suspects who escaped a police raid at King'orani in Majengo has surrendered to police. According to County Commissioner Nelson Marwa, the suspect, Mohamud Said Mohamed turned himself in yesterday evening at Malindi CID office after being prevailed upon by his father who saw his photo circulating in the media.

Terror suspect Abdi Twahir Abdallah when he appeared before Mombasa Senior Principal Magistrate Richard Odenyo yesterday. (PHOTO: GIDEON MAUNDU/ STANDARD)

It also emerged that some of the terror suspects who escaped a police dragnet on Monday were linked to the 2014 botched raid on Nyali Barracks and Garissa University attack. Police said Hussein Said Omar aka Babli and Ishmael Shosi aka Ismael Mmanga were inside a house at King'orani in Mombasa, which the law enforcers raided at 5pm.

Babli and Shosi are linked to the November 2, 2014 attack on Nyali Barracks attack, the killings of police officers and the assassination Sheikh Mohamed Idriss. Police said the two are also linked to the Garissa university attack, where 148 people were killed in April, 2, last year.

According to Mombasa County Commander Francis Wanjohi, the two key members of Al-Shabaab's Kenyan cell, Jeysh Ayman, escaped with their accomplices, Kassim Mohamed Abdalla and Mohamed Said Mohamed during the Monday raid. Yesterday, police displayed an M4 carbine rifle that was snatched from a slain sentry during the attempted raid at Nyali Barracks and a G3 rifle used to kill a police officer in Mombasa in October last year.

Planning attack

"The G3 rifle recovered from the fugitive's house was the one used to kill a police constable outside Gulf Bank at Mombasa's Bondeni," said Mombasa County Commissioner Nelson Marwa. The G3 serial number 6927777 had an inscription 'Al Kataib' on the barrel.

The said police constable, Simon Lochodo, was shot and killed on October 2, 2014 outside Gulf Bank in Mombasa's Bondeni area. Yesterday, security officials in Mombasa said they believed the suspects were assembling Improvised Explosive Devices to use in an attack at an unspecified place, warning that they were "armed and dangerous."

"Our aim was to arrest and not to kill them so that they can be interrogated. They, however, slipped out of the house before the operation could begin. But we are in pursuit," said Wanjohi.

Marwa and Wanjohi, however, described the raid carried out by anti-terror police at as a major breakthrough in the war against terror.

Other items police said they recovered are 350 bullets, 15 cell phones, a laptop, a memory card reader, one memory card, three video cassettes and Sh190, 400.