Two convicted of being Al-Shabaab terrorists get 25 years in jail each

Two men convicted of being members of the terror group Al-Shabaab were on Thursday sentenced to 25 years in jail each.

Abdimajit Hassan and Mohamed Osman Nane were arrested in Merti Sub-county, Isiolo County, after they were found with bombs, Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) and an assortment of firearms and ammunition.

They were handed the penalty by Milimani Senior Principal Magistrate Zeinab Abdul who found them guilty of being members of the terror group and of having firearms intended for use in a terror attack.

The court noted that the jail term will factor in the time they have spent in police custody - since February 2018 - meaning they have 19 years left.

The two were found with seven bombs, 36 hand grenades, AK47 rifles, 36 loaded magazines and more than 1,000 bullets on February 15, 2018.

Prosecution counsel Allen Mulama told the court to consider that the explosives would have caused destruction within a radius of 350 metres but did not disclose where in Nairobi the attack was to be carried out.

However, security sources hinted to this writer that the terrorists and their accomplices who were never arrested were plotting to bomb either the Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi, the Parliament building or the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC).

The sources said those arrested in a shootout with the police were yet to receive final instructions on where to strike. One suspect - Jirma Huka - was killed in the shootout.

Hassan and Nane were convicted of possession of weapons for terrorist purposes contrary to section 12 (a) of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) of 2012. Abdul had acquitted them of charges of conspiring to carry out a terror attack.

The two were charged alongside four others with embedding explosives in a car, registration KBM 200D, and turning it into a Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED).

Their co-accused were taxi driver Anthony Kitila Makau alias Rasta, John Maina Kiarii who died in 2021, Lydia Nyawira and Francis Karishu.

Makau and Karishu were acquitted of all the charges but Mburu, who aided Huka in forging a national identity card, was found guilty of forging an official document.

She was handed a three-year jail term for the offence without the option of a fine. Mulama had requested a maximum jail term of seven years for her.

Mburu pleaded for a non-custodial sentence before Abdul jailed her.

A lawyer had requested that the computer used in processing the ID card be released to the owner.

Abdul advised that the application for release of all items, that had been presented in the court as exhibits during the hearing, be made at the High Court after 14 days, owing to POTA provisions on such items.