Police have linked Dusit suicide bomber Mahir Riziki to the recently slain Ngombeni gang leader and suspected terror operative Mohamed Rashid Mwatsumiro, alias Modi.
Modi was shot dead on August 30 after engaging the elite Recce police officers in a shootout at his house in Ngombeni, Kwale County.
Corporal Jeremiah Mula, who was shot in the stomach, was airlifted to Nairobi for treatment.
A police report obtained by the Nation shows that police recovered from the suspect’s home a Glock pistol S/No.MR 763 loaded with 10 rounds of 9mm ammunition, one live 9mm bullet and a spent cartridge.
Also recovered were materials for making improvised explosive devices (IED), including batteries connected in series, 10 metres of electric wire with two switches and a black masking tape.
“A pamphlet bearing a name of a terror suspect whose case is proceeding before Mombasa High Court was recovered. A head mask, one pair of black hand gloves and literature materials containing Islamic teachings were also found,” says the police report.
According to a security brief seen by the Nation, Modi and Mahir left for Somalia together with the aim of joining terror group Al-Shabaab.
It is understood that they travelled to Tanzania, then to Somalia before quietly returning to Kenya at the end of last year.
Further, they are said to have been among the Kenyans who left for Somalia after the Masjid Musa Mosque raid in 2014.
The Mombasa mosque was raided by security agencies in February 2014 after investigations linked it to radicalisation and hiding terror operatives and arms.
It is said that the duo was influenced by two of the mosque’s former imams, Aboud Rogo and Abubakar Sharif, also known as Makaburi, whom they said recruited for Al-Shabaab.
Rogo was killed in 2012 and Makaburi in 2014.
“Other individuals who went to Somalia at that time include Ahmed Omar Said, alias Dogo, Ramadhan Hamisi Kufungwa, alias Rama, Mohamed Ebrahim, alias Daddy, and Salim Ahmed Mohamed, alias Lascano, who are still at large,” the brief adds.
Ramadhan Hamisi Kufungwa, a former senior leader at Masjid Musa, was said to have been the key recruiting agent for the two.
Kafungwa has also being linked to several acts of terrorism, including the 2014 plot to kidnap foreign tourists during Christmas.
After undergoing training, Modi and Mahir are said to have returned to Kenya together late last year, where Modi set to assemble a criminal gang and radicalisation network in Kwale; while Mahir quietly engaged in plans to carry out an attack in Nairobi, targeting DusitD2 Hotel.
In January, five attackers stormed DusitD2 Hotel, killing 16 people in the attack that was linked to Shabaab militants in Somalia.
The police report shows that Modi was the leader of a gang operating in Likoni constituency, Mombasa County, and Ngombeni in Matuga constituency.
Anti-terror police who had heightened surveillance around Modi after the assault raided his hideout in March, but he managed to escape.
During the security operation in Ng’ombeni, antiterrorism officers were targeting a house occupied by members of an Al-Shabaab cell.
But several operatives escaped, among them Salim Rashid Mohammed, Juma Waziri, Mkauma Ali Mbuya and Juma Mwengo.
Police recovered assorted military uniforms, military boots, spent cartridges, tear gas canisters, materials for making explosives, communication devices, batteries and assorted crude weapons (hacksaws, knives, machetes and a hammer).
The Nation was made to understand that a leak from within the police service compromised the raid.
The Shabaab operatives had been terrorising south Coast residents, with the gang being fingered for a spate of robberies targeting M-Pesa shops and other businesses in Kwale.
According to County Police Commander Tom Odero, Modi was directly linked to the recent killings of village elder Bakari Dondo and Muslim cleric Shee Fumbwe in Mabokoni, Msambweni constituency.
Dondo’s head was chopped off and buried in a shallow grave.
A reclusive man, he was often seen praying at Masjid An-biyaah, which is located 100 metres from his house where he lived with his wife.
Mkauma Ali Mbuya, one of the runaways, was later gunned down by the police alongside three of his accomplices in April in Mazeras during a firefight.
During the operation, an AK-47 riffle said to have been used in a series of robberies and killings was recovered.
It is understood that on the day he was killed, Modi was furious with his wife for allowing the census officials to visit his house to conduct the exercise.
He sent her to leave with her parents. “Even though she really tried to resist, he was insistent that she must leave with the child. He became aggressive and she had to give in. It was as if he was expecting something to happen that night,” the Nation was told.
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