Hunt on for German jihadist, kin claim body

A second family in Mombasa’s Kingo’rani estate arrived in Mpeketoni to claim a body among the 11 slain jihadists lying at the local mortuary.

The family walked into the mortuary Friday, claiming they had positively identified Abdulkadir Rehani among the 11 corpses.

On Friday, The Standard on Saturday also learnt that Anti-Terrorism Police and military intelligence were reviewing the footage of a video camera left behind by fleeing jihadists who escaped the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) fire power to establish the identity of the militants.

Already the police has offered Sh10 million bounty for a German, Andreas Martin Muller aka Abu Nusaibah who escaped with a gunshot wound during the botched terror attack at a military camp in Barue, Lamu County.

A source at the intelligence indicate police and KDF believe that Nusaibah is the automatic successor of British jihadists Thomas Evans alias Abdul Hakim and Kenyan Ludman Isa Osman who were killed on Sunday.

Mombasa County Commissioner Nelson Marwa confirmed that families of three of slain jihadists had informed him that their sons were missing.

“Yes, it is true that three families of those killed in Lamu came to me to report about their missing sons. We cannot name them because we do not wish them to be stigmatised. Many youths have surrendered and we tell those still roaming with guns that they will be met with bigger force than that of Lamu,” said Marwa.

About a dozen pathologists took tissue samples from the 11 bodies for DNA analysis to ensure no family claims the wrong body.

“The purpose of the forensic analysis is to identify the bodies through DNA,” said Lamu County coordinating commander for the Administration Police, Chrispus Mutali.