Two await sentencing for being members of Al-Shabaab terror group
By Joseph Ndunda |
Abdimajit Hassan and Mohamed Osman Nane were found with seven bombs, 36 hand grenades, AK47 rifles and more than 1,000 bullets on February 15, 2018.
Two men who were found with bombs, weapons and bullets are awaiting sentencing after they were convicted of being members of the Al-Shabaab group.
Abdimajit Hassan and Mohamed Osman Nane were found with seven bombs, 36 hand grenades, AK47 rifles and more than 1,000 bullets at Merti Sub-county, Isiolo County, on February 15, 2018.
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In court on Tuesday, Milimani Senior Principal Magistrate Zainab Abdul found them guilty of being members of Al-Shabaab but cleared them of charges of conspiring to carry out a terror attack.
They were also found guilty of possession of weapons for terrorist purposes, contrary to section 12 (a) of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) of 2012.
Hassan and Nane were allegedly colluding with others not in court to bomb the Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi.
They were charged alongside four people with embedding explosives in a vehicle, registration KBM 200D, thereby making a Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED).
The other suspects in the case were Lydia Nyawira, taxi driver Anthony Kitila Makau alias Rasta, Francis Macharia Karishu, and John Maina Kiarii, who died in 2021.
Hassan and Nane were arrested in Isiolo in a shootout with police in which they surrendered, while Nyawira, Makau and Karishu were picked up in Nairobi.
The group faced a total of 11 charges but most of them were dismissed.
Nyawira, Karishu and Kiarii faced a charge of supporting a terrorist group in contravention of section 9 (1) of the POTA but were cleared.
Nyawira, who helped an accomplice obtain a fake national identity card, was found guilty of forging an official document, a crime for which she is also awaiting sentencing. She made a national ID for Jirma Huka, who was killed in the shootout with police.
Nyawria was acquitted of the charge of supporting a terrorist group after arguing that she did not know what the fake ID would be used for and merely took an opportunity to make money.
The court cancelled her bail terms and ordered her detained at the Langata Women's Prison. Probation officers will interview her and write a report that will be presented to the court.
Makau faced two counts of aiding and abetting the commission of a terrorist attack, with the prosecution accusing him of helping Hassan purchase two vehicles in Nairobi. He was acquitted.
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