Where are the terrorist cells in Eastleigh?

State security agents believe there are many terrorist sleeper cells in Eastleigh, but have been unable to infiltrate and dismantle them due to deep-rooted corruption.

Since 2010, fingers have pointed towards Eastleigh whenever terrorists wreak havoc. But as usual, after a terrorist strike, security agents respond in their predictable swift fashion, making arrests and issuing threats before lulling back into sleep, only to be caught napping again.

The current security operation in the area is a replay of a similar campaign last year when many suspected foreigners were rounded up in a reflex reaction that temporarily treated the symptoms.

Religiously, ethnically emotive

Yet intelligence gathered over time indicates that amid the booming business activities in Eastleigh, lies dangerous terror sleeper cell networks that hit at will, disappearing without trace – regrouping and unleashing the same vicious violence without encountering any resistance.

A sleeper cell is a secretive group of spies or terrorist agents that remain inactive within a target population until ordered to act. An anti-terror police officer once confided in this paper that they are many sleeper cells in Eastleigh with members being sneaked in from Somalia.

Kamukunji sub-county commissioner George Natembeya described the terrorism problem in Eastleigh as complex, religiously and ethnically emotive.

 “The biggest problem in Eastleigh is that many parents do not take their children to school. They take them to Madrassa, so they do not receive formal education, but end up being radicalized instead,” said the administrator.

He said they had received information that some residents had fled to South B and South C estates to evade the operation being carried out by between 800 and 2,000 police officers.

Influx of foreigners

Natembeya disclosed that foreigners from Somalia are offering cheap labour in Eastleigh with some ending up joining criminal gangs like ‘Superpower’. Another problem, according to the administrator, is that the Somali community is mean with information, never willing to expose the wrong people amongst them.

“If we manage to control the influx of the foreigners, we shall solved the problem half way. There is also lack of political goodwill with some people closing ranks to oppose routine security operations aimed at rooting out the wrong elements,” Natembeya said.

Security agencies compromising the military, police, immigration and registration of persons have tried in vain to crush the sleeper cells believed to be behind a string of bloody explosions.

A senior police officer blamed their inability to destroy the terror cells on counter conspiracies within the rank and file in government.

“When we are planning to deal with the problem, especially people we suspect sponsor terror activities, the information is immediately relayed to the enemy,” said the officer, adding that the conspirators are even in the high circles of the executive, judiciary and legislature.

The officer said the current crackdown in Eastleigh may not yield the desired results because some colleagues were receiving bribes and setting free potential suspects. “We have received information that huge amounts of money are exchanging hands,” disclosed the officer.

The officer was frustrated that information was not forthcoming from the coy Eastleigh community and that some government officials had set up a bureau to issue citizenship to illegal immigrants. “The cartel issues IDs and passports to foreigners from Somalia. They have an office on First Avenue,” said the officer.

Haji Hassan Gulleid, chairman of the Eastleigh Business Association, who is opposed to the inhumane treatment subjected to a number suspects arrested, could neither deny nor confirm whether there existed sleeper cells in Eastleigh.

“That is a difficult question that can best be answered by security agents. I don’t know how members of terror cells look like,” he responded, adding that they welcome the security swoops but are unhappy that suspects held at Safaricom Stadium in Kasarani were denied food, access to relatives and toilet facilities.

A retired officer who took this writer on a tour of the area said high ranking al Qaeda officials with investments in real estate are recruiting young men to join the network. The money, he added, is laundered before being “cleaned” through legal investment.

“If one has property, which is legally registered, then it becomes difficult to link them to terror activities. We have received such information on individuals suspected to have links to terrorism by virtue of their investments. But that is not enough information to indict them,” said then Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU) boss Nicholas Kamwende, who is now head of investigation in Nairobi.

The officer showed this writer some property in Eastleigh he claimed belongs to three key coordinators of al Qaeda network in East Africa. The terror collaborators are allegedly using some mosques to carry out recruitment.

A young man from Dandora (name withheld) claims his life is in danger after he declined overtures to join al Shabaab. The former footballer in his mid-20s believes that a “fatwa” has been issued against him. They want the father of two dead because he might spill the beans after having a dalliance for few years with the al Shabaab men who allegedly recruit in Huruma, Kiamaiko and Korogocho.

All that is needed from new recruits is them to forsake their Christian names at a certain mosque in Eastleigh, where they are given letters confirming them as Muslims before starting the radicalisation process.

The man who fears to report the matter to police alleges that al Shabaab is now targeting Christian criminals.

“They (al Shabaab) target criminals because such individuals have no mercy… they do not hesitate to kill or cause damage,” he claims, adding that he does not want to lodge a complaint over his life because one officer based at a city slum is collaborating with his erstwhile friends turned foes.

Following an intelligence report in 2010 that Eastleigh was a hub for terrorist activities where plotters met, planned and executed their mission before vanishing, the government, in a desperate move seen as diversionary, sanctioned an audit of property belonging to foreigners.

The exercise ordered by then Internal Security PS Francis Kimemia and whose outcome was never made public following public outrage from Somali professionals led by Ahmednasir Abdullahi was headed by Nairobi Regional Coordinator Njoroge Ndirangu.

It was regarded as “classified information”. Neither Kimemia who is now Secretary to the Cabinet nor Ndirangu picked calls to their phones. On the dawn of April 8, about 79 Somalis found to have no documents were sent back home through Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).

“We have found foreigners without documents, refugees who are out of the camps, aliens with valid documents and Kenyans without documents. Scores others have been recommended for further investigation by ATPU,” said an officer privy to the operation.

Lasting and amicable solution

The officer expressed disappointment that there was an exodus of people from the estate in the wake of the security clean-up. There was also a move by a section of the residents to go to court to block the operation.

When contacted, Interior Cabinet secretary Joseph ole Lenku said that the government will sustain the crackdown on terror suspects.

Natembeya said the recently launched Nyumba Kumi initiative is yet to spread to Eastleigh where he revealed that residents are reluctant to testify against crime suspects.

“When a person is arrested, they go to police to withdraw then reconcile in private. So this complicates further our work,” said the commissioner.

Police spokesman Masoud Mwinyi denied and form of misconduct on the part of officers carrying out the swoop saying: “We have not received any formal report. Members of the public are free to make such complaints.”