Suspected Al Shabaab spy jailed for three years

Alion Edin Marsack, a Somali national who was jailed for three years for being in the country illegally. [Fred Kagonye, Standard]

A man arrested on suspicion of being an Al Shabaab spy has been jailed for three years after he admitted to being in the country illegally.

Alion Edin Marsack, a Somali national was arrested in Wargadud Township, Mandera County a town along the Kenya - Somalia border on April 21 and detained at the Elwak Police Station.

He was arraigned at a Mandera Court on two counts of being in the country illegally and entering the country through a place that is not designated as a point of entry or exit.

Detectives are however investigating the activities that Marscak was up to in the country before he was arrested following a tip-off from members of the public.

During his interrogation by detectives from the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit, Marsack confessed that he was recruited by the terror group in 2018.

He told detectives that he had undergone various training including collecting information for facilitating attacks.

Detectives believe that he is one of the spies dispatched from the terror groups El Adde camp in Somalia to collect information in the country and turn it over.

Investigators say that he was in the company of a member of the terror group who has been on their radar for some time and during interrogation Marsack admitted so.

Marsack told the police that he was once deployed to an unspecified camp in Jilib before moving to Gedo to carry out different operations within Somalia.

The 39-year-old said that he worked as a mason in Somalia, and admitted that he was involved in over five attacks carried out by the terror group in Gedo and Middle Juba in Somalia.

Police suspect that Marsack could have been in the area not just for collecting information but also to plan how to destroy communication masts using Improvised Explosive Devices in anticipation of an attack by the terror group.

The investigators are expected to drag him back to court where he will be charged with being a member of a terrorist group and collecting information for a terrorist organization.