Four people arrested as details of 3 female terrorists in Mombasa attack emerge

Police officers keep vigil at Central Police Station in Mombasa. Security outside the station has been tightened. [PHOTO: OMONDI ONYANGO/ STANDARD]

MOMBASA: Details of the three women terrorists who attacked Mombasa Central Police Station on Sunday continued to emerge as police arrested three more suspects yesterday.

The three suspects, all refugees from Somalia and who are believed to have been living together with the terrorists who were gunned down, have given credence to detectives’ fears that terror cells are using women to launch brazen attacks in the country.

Also arrested is one male suspect said to have been staying with the young women.

The three suspects, Saeda Ali Haji, Naema Nahamed Ali and Shukri Ali, are said to have been hosted by the suspected mastermind of the attack, Tasmin Yakub Abdullahi Farah, in Kibokoni and are now in custody assisting the police with investigations.

Counter-terrorism investigators are puzzled by this emerging new trend by terror networks. Female terrorists, they said, will further complicate the war against terror because women have the added advantage of being able to conceal weapons under the buibui - a flowing black dress covering the women’s entire body except the  face or, in some cases, the eyes.

Besides, women are presumed to be non-violent and may not attract the attention of the public and police, which makes them attractive prey for terror recruiters.

Police say two of the female terrorists killed on Sunday studied at one of the coastal city’s Islam schools, with one graduating last year.

And an unidentified man in whose house they lived in Kibokoni before staging the raid was arrested yesterday morning as reports emerged that Tasmin, who was killed in the raid, was most likely the mastermind behind the attack.

The heavily built woman - about six feet tall - was felled by two police bullets.

Police officers who asked not be named said she has been linked to extremist ideologies and foreign radical groups on the Internet.

terror links

Her nationality is not known but she lived in Kibokoni for years and recently hosted three women currently being held with regards to the attack.

“We believe this is the mastermind of the plot to attack the police station because of her earlier links to terrorism activities,” said a senior police official.

He said two of the slain women operated on the Internet under several aliases including Maimuna and Ramla, and had displayed admiration for the Islamic State in apparent conversation with Tasmin in an Internet chat-room which police claim to have been following for months.

A statement released by the police on Sunday evening said Tasmin hosted the women from Somalia in  Kibokoni on unstated dates. Some reports that cannot be confirmed indicate Tasmin had been in touch with terror groups in Somaliland and Puntland for some time. Although she had a criminal record, she was never charged.

Fatma Omar Yusuf, who was also killed in the raid, was shot in the forehead and incinerated by a petrol bomb. Police said they could not approach her as she lay dying for fear that she might detonate a suicide bomb.

Fatma sat her Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exams at a local day school in 2013. Witnesses claimed she leaped across the reporting desk and stabbed a police officer at the beginning of the raid while shouting "La Illah Ila Allah, Allahu Akbar!"

Her charred body bears a bullet injury in the left armpit and reports indicate that she died two hours after the carnage, still mumbling jihadist slogans.

The third attacker has been identified only as Mariam, born in 1997, and who sat her Form Four exams at a Muslim-run school in Mombasa.

The motive of their attack is not clear but police believe it was timed to coincide with the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks in the US.

Some accounts indicate that she spoke fluent English with a British accent.

Other unconfirmed reports indicate that Tasmin studied in the same school as Mariam but in different classes.

By yesterday, there was no indication that any of the women wore suicide belts. A witness told The Standard that one of them tossed a mobile phone inside the police station as she fell.

NO cctv

The Standard has established that there was no Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) camera inside the police station. As such, police have no footage of what happened inside the building.

Mombasa County Police Commander Patterson Maelo said the three women wore bulletproof vests under their buibui. Mr Maelo did not provide details on the nature of the vests but sources told The Standard they resembled those worn by the Kenya Police and that they are not available in the open market.

Police also recovered two knives from the slain terrorists and were yesterday searching for the terrorists' passports as detectives believe this would help them track their movements.

One of the slain women allegedly boasted to officers at the report desk that she was widely travelled.

“She made remarks that suggested she had been out of the country, probably visiting a terrorism base. That is what we are trying to establish,” said an officer aware of the probe.

A team of detectives led by head of the anti-terror unit Munga Nyale is in Mombasa pursuing the other attackers. They want to know if any of the women had been to either Syria or Somalia. The officers have also questioned the terrorists' parents to establish where they have been in the last year.

Meanwhile, Muslim leaders have expressed concern about the emerging role of women in Kenya’s jihadist movement. Speaking in Mombasa yesterday, the leaders said the three female terrorists were a disgrace to Islam.

Chief Kadhi Sharif Muhdar called on the Government to take stern action against terrorists regardless of their race and gender.

“Women have been used in the past to support terror activities and have decided to join these groups. They should face the full force of the law,” he warned.

Mombasa Senator Hassan Omar said that the attack should be taken seriously because it was the first time in Kenya that women were being used in the frontline of terror attacks. 

“I have always know that whenever the women go as jihad brides, they give moral support but it is the first time I have seen women in our country treated as first-line combatants in executing terror,” said Mr Omar.