Five Mandera quarry massacre suspects finally take plea, ask for bail

NAIROBI: Five people accused of participating in the massacre of 36 quarry workers in Mandera last December who have been charged with committing a terrorism act in a Nairobi court, have finally taken plea.

Abubakar Salim Kitonga, Maslah Daud Hassan, Musa Daud Hassan, Shukri Abdi Salat and Philip Ochieng Omondi denied the charges before Milimani Senior Principal Magistrate Enock Cherono.

They allegedly committed the act on December 2, 2014 at Koromy Quarry. Kitonga was also charged with being in possession of an article which was to be used to instigate terrorism.

On January 28, 2015 in Mandera County, he was found with a mobile phone, a Simcard and a micro SD memory card which had the said article.

When they were arrested, Musa Hassan, Maslah Hassan and Shukri Salat were found with mobile phones and several SIM cards of the victims of the Mandera twin terror attacks.

Three of the accused who are Somalians faced a separate charge of being in the country illegally. Two of them were also charged with being found with pro-terrorism materials.

Prosecutor Daniel Karuri applied to have the accused denied bail.

"The offence committed is extremely serious and the accused are likely to be sentenced upon conviction," said Mr Karuri.

Their Lawyer Mbugua Mureithi told the court that the prosecution needs to explain why some of the accused have been detained for a long period. The prosecution had earlier asked for more time to complete investigations before the suspects take plea.

Though the suspects said they have been in custody for long, the application was allowed.

POLICE HUNT

"We are being moved from one place to another yet we don't even know what we are being charged with," said Musa Hassan.

Thirty-year-old Kitonga, a Kenyan, is accused of playing a key role in Al-Shabaab's activities in Mandera.

It is said that the suspect was hunted by the police for a long time as investigations indicated he is behind the recruitment of Kenyans, Ugandans and Tanzanians into Al-Shabaab. Kitonga is alleged to have facilitated the movement of non-Somali recruits into Somalia through Bula Hawa and that he has been living at a mosque in Mandera town.

The court will rule on their bail application Thursday.