Kwale man who was to testify against his son-in-law in terror trial killed

Some of the aliens arrested in a swoop over the weekend in a Mombasa court yesterday where they were charged with various offences including being in the country illegally. [PHOTO: GIDEON MAUNDU/STANDARD]

By TOBIAS CHANJI and WILLIS OKETCH

KWALE COUNTY: Unknown gunmen killed a 65-year-old man in Kwale who was due to testify in the trial of an Al-Shabaab suspect.

The killing came as 26 suspects arrested in a police swoop for being in the country illegally were charged in a Mombasa court.

The late Swaleh Mwakuyumba was a key witness in the trial of Seif Setu alias Budget who is charged with attempted murder.

Mr Setu, a son-in-law to the slain Mr Mwakuyumba, had earlier been booked by the police as being a member of Al-Shabaab before suspending the charge and replacing it with the attempted murder.

Mwakuyumba was shot dead in his house at Mbuani village, Diani town, Kwale County.

Police said the late Mwakuyumba has escaped death twice and that they suspect the killing to be related to the ongoing attempted murder case in which he was the key witness.

The police further suggested that his killers might be members of the Al -Shabaab terror group.

“It was around 12.30am when an unknown number of gun men went to his home and without uttering any word shot him twice in the stomach while his wife, Halima Mwatsudzo, was shot in the right leg,” said Msambweni OCPD Joseph Omijah adding: “They were both rushed to Msambweni hospital where the wife survived but the Mwakuyumba succumbed to the gun wounds.”

Mr Omijah said nothing was stolen from the couple indicating that it was a planned assassination.

“The motive of the assassination is not clear but we suspect the murder could have occurred because the late is a witness in a murder case that is set for hearing on Tuesday (today),” said Omijah.

Early February, Setu allegedly shot the late in the stomach, in an attempt to kill him.

After the first shooting, Setu his fugitive friend Rama Mwachala were charged with belonging to the Al Shabaab terror group before the murder indictment.

On February 20, the late again escaped death narrowly after armed gang attempted to shoot him in his house.

POLICE SWOOP

Meanwhile, the 26 aliens, mainly from Somalia and a US citizen were charged for being in the country illegally, following their arrest in Changamwe on Saturday night.

The police claimed that Fadai Idi Ismail, a middle-aged man of Somali ethnicity is a US citizen and was found in Mombasa but would not reveal who was hosting him.

Among those charged were five Chinese, two Somalis and three Eritreans. The Standard could not verify if they were among those arrested as terrorist suspects. Mr Ismail denied the charge and was remanded to await trial but the Eritrean and Chinaman’s trials were put on hold for lack of translators.

However, most of the suspects were set free without charge, a move that raised questions as to why the arrest was conducted in the first place.

It was also not clear on how many people were arrested amid allegations of corruption in the crackdown on the terror suspects and illegal aliens.

There were unconfirmed reports that some aliens were secretly deported but police denied this.

Police also denied allegations that the officers were bribed to set free dozens of illegal aliens or businessmen accused to have sneaked the aliens into Mombasa.

Mombasa Deputy Police Commander Sevelino Kubai told The Standard that ‘after verification, 26 of them were found to be aliens and were taken to court’, referring to the group of between 60 and 100 suspects detained on Saturday.

“Others were found to be Kenyans with genuine papers going about their business when they were arrested,” said Mr Kubai adding that those released after verification were Kenyans who did not have identity papers when they were arrested.

“You know this operation was done at night and when they (Kenyans) were arrested they did not have any documents but we set them free after they were able to produce them,” he said.