Nairobi-based NIS officer shot and killed in Mombasa

Coast Region Commander Robert Kitur holds a photo of a suspect, Ismael Mohamed, who was allegedly involved in the murder of NIS officer Hashim Salman Ali. (Photo: Kelvin Karani/Standard)

Mombasa, Kenya: Masked gunmen shot and killed a National Intelligence Service (NIS) officer Thursday night as he emerged from a mosque in Mombasa's Old Town, sparking fears of a return of targeted assassination of security agents and moderate imams in the coastal city.

Mombasa police have not stated the probable motive of the attack but blame the killing on a suspect who allegedly walks around clad in flowing female Muslim robes or buibui to conceal a gun.

This is the second time a security officer is being killed in Mombasa this year and the fourth in the Coast since 2013, in relation with islamist militancy and a warren of mosques the government claims promote radical ideology.

Intelligence sources told The Standard that the lead assassin in Thursday's killing, Ismail Mohamed Soshi, has historically, been linked with the radical Musa Mosque in Mombasa's Majengo area and has ties with Luqman Osman Issa, the Al Shabaab militant killed in Lamu last month.

Hisham Salman Ali, 29 and a father of one, was shot five times in the head and limbs by two masked men at around 7pm on Thursday as he walked out of An Nisa Mosque in Mombasa's Old Town. He died at 8.35pm, the same day, at the Intensive Care Unit ICU of Pandya Memorial Hospital in Mombasa.

Mombasa County’s police commander Robert Kitur declared that the fugitive Ismael Mohamed Soshi led the operation against Hisham, who is attached to NIS headquarters in Nairobi.

"We already have one suspect in mind and he is called Ismail Mohamed Soshi who has been trained in Somalia," Kitur said on Friday and added that "police have information on a second suspect" whom he did not name.

Kitur did not speculate on the motive of Hisham's murder, only saying that the NIS officer "was killed in his home town".

Kitur added that Soshi has been linked to murders of policemen and several people in Mombasa.