Why top foreign jihadists turned Kenya into terrorists' playground

People leave a hotel at the scene of an explosion in Nairobi's Westlands suburb on January 15, 2019, in Kenya. - The Al-Shabaab Islamist group in Somalia claimed responsibility for an ongoing attack in the Kenyan capital, according to the SITE Intelligence Group which monitors jihadist activities. [AFP]

In 2011, as the threat of terrorism in the country became a major challenge, intelligence briefs started to capture reports of the arrival of highly trained foreign jihadists from the UK, Egypt, Canada, and Belgium.

Jermaine John Grant, aka Peter Joseph, aka Shawan, who was repatriated to the UK on Thursday, after serving a nine-year jail term, was flagged by Kenya police and Interpol.

He was sentenced after he was found guilty of possessing bomb-making materials and forgery in his house in Kisauni, Mombasa, in 2011.

Grant was first arrested by police in 2009 after and booked at Dadajabulla police post in Wajir. During arrest, he was dressed in a buibui and a hijab.

But armed fighters from Somalia made a brazen attack on the Dadajabulla police post and rescued him and two other unknown foreigners.

“At one of the roadblocks, Grant tried to pick something from the ground and a police officer saw his hand and that is when the officer realised that it was a man,” said a police source.

It is believed in the security circles that the raid on the police post was organised by most wanted fugitive Samantha Loise Lewthwaite aka White Widow, who had arrived in Somalia earlier to create a caliphate.

Escaped police dragnets

Samantha is the widow of Germaine Lindsay, who died in a suicide attack on the London subway in 2005. She escaped police dragnets in Mombasa and Lamu. Samantha is linked to the 2013 Westgate Mall attack that left 68 people dead.

Police have denied claims that some corrupt officers escorted Samantha from Lamu to the Somalia border. Grant is said to be an explosive expert and Samantha was ‘logistician’. It is not clear when Samantha arrived in Kenya, but she has been linked to multiple attacks.

She was linked to financing attacks in Lamu including the 2011 killing of British tourist David Tebbutt and the kidnap of his wife Judith Tebutt in Lamu, who was taken to Somalia.

Security reports warned that the foreign jihadists were well trained, unlike local radical followers of ultra-conservative and heretical preaching of some Muslim clerics at the Coast.

At the same time, fiery clerics like the late Sheikh Aboud Rogo, the late Sheikh Samir Khan, and the late Sheikh Abubakar Shariff aka ‘Makaburi’ had intensified calls to local youth to join Al Shabaab.

From their pulpits in the mosque in Coast, Nairobi, and North Eastern, the clerics declared the Al Shabaab war as a jihad to topple the “apostate government” in Somalia and establish a caliphate.

However, according to multiple reports and interviews, as Al Shabaab gained territories in parts of Somalia, differences emerged among its leaders.

Others say internal conflicts in the Al Shabaab started in 2007 when its emir (leader), Ismail Arale, was arrested in Djibouti. Arale would later be transferred to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Police intelligence reports shared then indicated that the internal conflicts forced some of the foreign jihadists that had trained to join the Al Shabaab to cross into Kenya.

Meanwhile, Grant would resurface in Mombasa in 2011, where he was arrested and taken to Nairobi to face robbery with violence charges connected to the jailbreak. He was acquitted.

Preparing an explosive

Court documents show that he would later be rearrested in the last stages of preparing an explosive at Kishada in Kisauni, while on honeymoon with his wife, Warda Breik.

He was charged alongside his wife and Frank Ngala, who were acquitted on April 24, 2016, for lack of evidence.

Grant’s other co-accused, Fuad Abubakar Manswab, jumped the Sh20 million bond and fled to Somalia. However, Manswab continued to launch attacks in Kenya.

Reports indicate that jihadists coalescing around Manswab, dubbed F1, and responsible for attacks using grenades and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) remain active.

However, Samantha would be on police radar again after the killing of Tebutt and the kidnap of his wife Judith, leading to the Kenya Defense Forces (KDF) incursion into Somalia.

Code named Operation Linda Nchi, KDF in hot pursuit of the jihadist that kidnapped the tourist, invaded southern Somalia in 2011.

Later, a multi-agency security operation to flush out Al Shabaab or Jaysh al-Ayman fighters from the Boni forest killed British jihadist Thomas Evans.

Thomas aka Abdul Hakim and Lamu terrorist cell’s leader Luqman Osman Issa were among 18 terrorists killed by KDF during a 2020 abortive raid at a military camp in Lamu.

Jane Wambui, a widow whose husband, Jeremiah Kimondo, was killed on June 16, 2014, during attacks in Mpeketoni identified Thomas as the man who slit his throat as the family watched. Kimondo, was among 48 villagers butchered by assailants linked to the Al Shabaab’s offshoot Jaysh al-Ayman.

“Those animals killed my husband when our boy was four months old. I never imagined I would raise my son through begging,” said Wambui, who was widowed at the age of 20.

Perhaps the most significant win in the war against terrorism in the country was last year’s killing of Maalim Ayman by the US military command in Africa, Africom, in Jilib.

Ayman was also linked to a blood bath in Lamu county.

Meanwhile, other than the British suspected terrorists, Interpol also issued a Red Notice on July 7, 2013, warning that a Belgian and two French tourists arrived in Kenya in 2011. Records showed that Hassan Kafi, arrested in Lamu, was wanted in Belgium on 32 counts of terrorism. He was  jailed for one year for being an illegal immigrant.

Kafi, Mustapha Bouyabaren, Rachid Benomari, and Ben Abdalla Ismail left Belgium and are said to have entered Kenya on April 20, 2011, through Bulgaria, Turkey, Egypt, and Tanzania.

There are several theories on why and how these foreign terrorists turned Kenya into their playground. Most security experts say it is because of its proximity to Somalia.

Abubakar Yusuf, a lawyer who has represented most wanted terrorists in court, said the jihadists took advantage of Kenya’s quest to increase foreign tourists sneaking into the country.

“That period, Kenya was very receptive to foreign tourists and low level of alertness at the borders, making it easier for these jihadists to gain entry into the country,” said Yusuf.

However, Muhuri programme officer Francis Auma, said the country’s borders were porous and most suspects bribed immigration and police officers to gain entry or acquire IDs.

“Initially, these jihadists were on transit to Somalia, where Al Qaeda and Al Shabaab had launched the war to establish a caliphate. But an internal war broke out in those organisation, forcing some fighters to relocate to Kenya,” said Auma.

He said that compared to 2011, Kenya was safe due to intelligence sharing in the region and the world. “It is clear that our borders are well-manned compared to the past,” said Auma.

“The killing of suspected terrorists, especially the clerics, failed to achieve desired goals. It drove more youth to jihadism,” said the Muhuri official who is involved in the de-radicalisation programme at the Coast.

Sleeper agents

Sheikh Rogo and Makaburi, listed on the United States and UK lists of sanctioned and designated terrorists, were killed by unknown assailants in 2013 and 2012, respectively.

On April 10, 2012, Sheikh Mohammed Kassim, who was Rogo’s companion, was killed and his body found in Kilifi. Kassim was linked to the 2021 Machakos country bus blast that killed six people.

On April 3, 2012, the body of Sheikh Samir Khan was dumped in Tsavo Forest in Taita Taveta along the Mombasa-Nairobi highway three days after he was reported missing.

Other than the clerics, the killings targeted the radical Sheikhs foot soldiers. Some of them are said to have crossed to Somalia for military training and returned as sleeper agents.

Yusuf said that unlike the killings, the counter-narrative approach against extremism by the civil society and inter-religious groups had helped to curb Al Shabaab recruitment.

“Foreign jihadists could easily move money into the country and continent because of the absence of tough anti-money laundering laws. We now have tough laws,” he said.

Auma and Yusuf said that the presence of KDF in Somalia was not tenable as they are perceived to be an occupying force. “We should continue with the soft power to win the mind and heart of the radicalised youth and reduce the use of hard power that has failed in the past,” said Yusuf.