Three female terror suspects were yesterday arrested in Mtwapa on their way to Garissa with an assortment of gadgets police believe were to aid a terror attack in Garissa.
Two of them were girls aged between 15 and 18 years who police say were to cross to Somali to join Al Shabaab as “jihadist brides”.
Police arrested the suspects in a bus that was destined for Garissa and confiscated a bag containing laptops, a surveillance pen, military boots and satellite phones. Other gadgets the police confiscated from the suspects were a laptop charger, external hard disk and ear phones used by security personnel.
arraigned in court
Yesterday the police and office of the Director of Public Prosecutions said initial investigations had revealed that a fourth suspect, who handed over the bag containing the gadgets to the three, fled to the United Kingdom through Mombasa’s Moi International Airport.
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“We have the phone of the suspect who fled after handing them the bag. She gave them a number of an Al Shabaab operative who they were supposed to call once they arrived in Garissa,” an officer privy with the investigations told The Standard.
The bag, according to a detective, was to be handed to a man in Garissa. “They were given a phone which they were to use to contact the said operative once they arrive in Garissa.
"Out of the three numbers they were to call, only one is working and we have tracked it to Garissa,” he revealed.
The three suspects, who are from Majengo in Mombasa, were arraigned in court yesterday where the prosecution successfully applied for 30 days to allow police to complete investigations.
State Lawyer Eugene Wangila said the police believe the suspects were part of a wider terror network and that the police would require experts from anti-cybercrime police to analyse the laptops found in their possession.
“We want 30 days to investigate the matter. They were intercepted aboard Muhsin Bus at the Mtwapa Weighbridge in Kilifi County on their way to Garissa following a tip-off,” said Wangila.
Wangila told Mombasa Principal Magistrate Diana Mochache that the threat of terrorism was grave and there is need for police to be given time to complete investigations.
The magistrate gave the prosecution the 30 days and ordered police to ensure Mwajuma Tayari, one of the suspects, and her one-and-half-year-old son were taken care of properly. She also had other children aged nine and 11.
“The baby must be provided with well-balanced food and taken to clinic when his time is due. But the child can also be released to any of her relatives in Mombasa,” said the magistrate.
The arrests come barely four days after police raided a house in Kisauni to arrest a suspect they identified as Farid Awadh. The suspect is linked to a terror group that is planning to attack some targets in the country.
Police believe Awadh arrived in Kenya last Friday with a cache of weapons.
