‘White Widow’ photos caused terror scare, court told

Nakuru, Kenya: A Nakuru Court was Wednesday told how a guard at Egerton University posted photographs of a wanted British terror suspect and Al Shabaab leader on social media last year, to cause a terror scare.

Detectives said Robert Mungai alias Mohammed Bluez, 21, allegedly posted pictures of Samantha Lewthwaite (the ‘White Widow’) and Ahmed Godane on the university’s Facebook page to cause a scare at the Njoro campus.

Mr Mungai, who has been in custody since his arrest in April last year after his family failed to raise a Sh750,000 bond, is fighting charges of spreading alarming terror hoax messages.

Mungai has denied six counts of issuing a terror hoax on April 3 and 4, 2015 contrary to sections of the terrorism prevention laws.

He allegedly spread the alarming terror message written in Arabic on Facebook targeting Egerton University in the wake of the Garissa University massacre of 142 people.

And yesterday before Senior Principal Magistrate Liz Gicheha, Inspector Joseph Kolum from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations produced the photographs as part of exhibits to link Mungai to the charges.
Mr Kolum, who marked the final prosecution witness after the court declined to adjourn the case, said the information retrieved from Mungai’s Facebook account were serious in regard to terror activities.

“The accused had talked about how Al Shabaab would attack Egerton University’s main campus in Njoro and that the attack would be deadly compared to the one that occurred at Garissa University,” Kolum said.