Two arrested as police foil planned terror attacks in Nairobi and Mombasa

Police have arrested two Kenyans linked to ISIS terror group and foiled what they termed as a planned terrorist attack in Nairobi and Mombasa.

Kiguzo Mwangolo Mgutu and Abubakar Jillo Mohamed are said to have been radicalised at Kangemi Mosque and were recruited by Mohamed Abdi Ali who has links with the Syrian group.
Ali had been arrested three weeks ago in an operation in Makindu. This is the second such arrest to be made in less than a month. When Ali and his accomplice were arrested, police said they planned to launch a chemical attack in the country.

Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet said Wednesday the two were arrested on Tuesday in a police operation in Kangemi following a tipoff by Ali who is in custody.

 “Following Mohamed Abdi Ali’s arrest, members of his network have been planning retaliatory attacks using home-made explosives. The arrest of the two has foiled terror attacks with explosives and other weapons that were planned for Nairobi and Mombasa,” Boinnet said in a statement.

He said they recovered various materials that were to be used to manufacture an IED at Mgutu’s residence in Kangemi.

Materials seized during their arrest include nails, ball bearings, batteries, electrical wire, fertilizer, cell phones and other suspected explosive substances which have been taken for forensic analysis.
According to the police, the two suspects were authors of an online document that declared their allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

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“From our initial investigations, it has been established that Kiguzo Mwangolo Mgutu and Abubakar Jillo Mohamed are amongst authors of the document that has been circulating online purporting the establishment of Jahba East Africa in which they declared their allegiance to the ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.”

Boinnet said the suspects had planned to escape from the country to Syria and Libya after carrying out the attacks in which they intended to target innocent Kenyans using public transportation. He said the youths were making these plans without their parent’s knowledge. The public has been urged to be extra vigilant, particularly while using public transport which is the main target for the terrorists.

Boinnet said police surveillance had been heightened following attempts by al Shabaab to infiltrate Kenya through Lacta belt in Somalia.

“We have over the last two months arrested eight Tanzanians who confessed to have been on their way to join the al Shabaab terror network.”

ISIS in Somalia, which is close to Kenya is an off-shoot of the al Qaeda linked al Shabaab. Fighters from al Shabaab decamped the group led by Sheikh Muumin to create a small pro-ISIS group in Somalia.

The defections have created greater enmity between the two factions.
According to reports, a cell of the ISIS in Somalia has grown in size by a factor of five in the space of just nine months.

The group had just 20-30 members when it was founded in October 2015, but has now grown to between 100-150 fighters in one region.