Kamiti escape: Terror convicts handed 15 more years

Kamiti Maximum Prison's watchtower and perimeter wall. [File, Standard]

The Magistrate’s Court at Kahawa has slapped three terrorism convicts with 15 more years to cool their heels behind bars for a daring escape from Kamiti Maximum Prison.

Principal Magistrate Gideon Kiage yesterday agreed with the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) that Musharaf Abdalla alias Shuku, alias Shaliff, alias Alex Shikanda, or Rashid Suantan, Mohamed Ali and Joseph Juma Odhiambo deserved a severe punishment for a bizarre escape that was plotted for close to a year.

He said that the prosecution, led by James Machira, Kennedy Amwayi, Anthony Musyoka and Kelvin Kamau, had presented sufficient evidence linking the four to the crime, which deserved a deterrent sentence.

Kamiti is the most guarded, if not the most protected, prison in the country.

Machira told the court that those who were meant to guard them on the night of escape denied being involved or sleeping on the job.

Edwin Muhia, a prison inspector, denied any wrongdoing. He told the court that he never saw anything unusual on the night they escaped. He said that all the 1979 prisoners were locked inside when he checked in and out. At the same time, he argued that the CCTV footage produced in court was unclear, and the evidence was contradictory. He asserted that he did not know how they moved from Kamiti.

 Prison’s Constable Joseph Nakwai, who was manning the compound outside the block, said he too never saw anything. he alleged that the area he was tasked with was dark and he had not been issued with a torch. Nakwai also said that if there is an escape, a certain alarm is raised signalling a total lockdown. However, on the night of November 14 and 15, he said, it was all quiet until he handed over.

He said that an escapee allegedly singled out those who helped them escape, but they were not charged.

The other person in court, as an accused person, is Inspector Musyoka. He too denied any wrongdoing. According to his testimony, he took over from Njuguna and everything was well until the escape was discovered. He testified that he went to the CCTV room and it emerged that the cameras were not properly focusing on the block.

He distanced himself from any blunder that may have occurred, saying that despite the fact he was in charge of the early shift, everyone should carry his burden. The mistake, he insisted, was not his.

Another constable, Robert Soi, told the court that all the doors were locked properly, adding that not even a cat can go through them. He asserted that he had never seen anything abnormal and added that he did not neglect his duty.

Ronald Muendo also denied that he had anything to do with the escape. He said that he handed over to the next team when everything was okay. He said there was a bias as some of the officers who were with them on the night had not been charged.

The convicts' escape is chronicled in testimonies by different testimonies by witnesses before the Kahawa Law Courts.

Chief Inspector Meshack Kagera was among those told the State’s side of the story. He told the court that between 11 and 12.30 pm, he was informed by the Director of Investigations that terror suspects had escaped Kamiti.

Kagera narrated that when he got to Kamiti, he called Gerald Mutembei, who was in charge, who then explained what transpired.

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations officer said that Mutembei told him that a security officer by the name Lekulal had told him that other officers who had gone to check on the generator discovered a rope that was hanging from the inside to the outside of the main wall.

The rope, according to him, was adjacent to condemned block A and upon checking, they discovered that the trio who were in cell six were allegedly missing.

How the trio managed to escape, according to Kagera, they folded their mattresses to resemble people sleeping on the ground, then dug a hole out, concealed with a mattress and waited for the breakout time.

He told the court that following a search, they found two nails, one of which was sharpened inside the cells, and there was a chisel at the place where convicts condemned to die were hanged.

He said that at ‘kinyonga’ they managed to access the hole that had been dug.

Just like in Alcatraz, one prisoner did not escape in Kamiti. Abdimajid Yassin was left in cell six.

The investigator said that upon interrogating him, he told them that he did not know what transpired; thought that there was a prisoner transfer, as when he woke up, he was all alone.

Yassin alias Ali Hussein alias Browny pleaded guilty on September 20, 2012 and was sentenced to 59 years. He was arrested alongside Alex Shikanda and Musharaf Abdalla following a swoop that led to the discovery of a cache of weapons that were Kenya’s deadliest plot.

Shikanda and Abdalla were sentenced to 22 years in prison by the magistrate’s court. They were then acquitted on appeal by the High Court, but the Director of Public Prosecutions appealed Justice Grace Nzioka’s verdict.

On the night of September 14, 2012, police arrested two men in Eastleigh, Nairobi County, and recovered some explosives, guns, and ammunition.

The explosives, weighing approximately 18 kilograms, could kill more than 500 people, and they also recovered 12 hand grenades, 16 magazines, and 421 rounds of ammunition.

The present Deputy Inspector General of the Kenya Police, Eliud Lagat, was the star witness in the case. At the time, he was a superintendent. The officer told the court that he disarmed the explosives. According to him, more than 500 people could have been killed if the plot had succeeded.

By his estimation, then, this could have been the deadliest attack in Kenya. The 1998 bomb blast cost at least 212 lives, while in the 2013 Westgate and Garissa University attacks, 67 and 142 people lost their lives, respectively.

In his testimony, he said that he saw two explosives in two bags, and he cut wires connected to two Nokia phones. Another bag, he said, had four AK47 rifles and ammunition. There were two other bags with different types of explosives hooked to a grenade.

From his examination, he said, four IEDs were suicide explosive vests. At the time, the prosecution was being represented by senior prosecutor Vincent Monda.

According to Lagat, the jackets had three slabs on each with a mixture of explosives, namely TNT, RDX, and PETN.

He said the three are components of high explosives. The witness further testified that RDX is a primary explosive and that TNT and PETN can travel at the speed of 8.5 meters per second.

The investigator further said that each slab was glued with several ball bearings, which enhanced fragmentation effects during an explosion since they could fly in all directions.

Lagat testified that each vest had more than 2,300 ball bearings.

The other two IEDs, the court heard, were hooked to a grenade that had a slab of ball bearings glued to them. The officer said it looked like a pineapple. Of the 12 grenades, he explained, six were F1 Russian Grenades, which look like pineapples, and the other six were Chinese 82-2 grenades, which were smooth.

According to him, the explosives could be controlled remotely or could have been used by a suicide bomber.

He stated that rocker switches on the explosives were to be used by the suicide bomber, and in the event they failed, then the Nokia phones could be used to trigger them.

According to Kagera, the transfer of Yassin to cell six was meant to conceal the escape, as he would have allegedly answered the roll call.