The man who was captured on CCTV blowing himself up at Dusit D2 Hotel was one of the masterminds of the Garissa University attack which left 147 students dead, Nation reports.
Mahir Khalid Riziki had been on the police radar since 2014. It is, however, still not clear how he managed to escape arrest for 5 years and killed more people in Nairobi.
Police officers had his photos, contacts of his close family members and friends. On January 7, a week before the 14 Riverside attack, his wife Suhaila Mwalim Bakari was arrested yet the terrorist was still roaming the streets.
What is even more baffling is that Riziki had appeared on a poster in 2014, a year before the Garissa University massacre, as one of the most wanted men.
At the time, he was accused of being behind the wave of killings at the Kenyan Coast.
Somehow, he evaded arrest and was named alongside 8 others as one of the key players in the siege at the institution that lasted 18 hours.
Most of Riziki’s accomplices in the Garissa University attack either disappeared, killed or were arrested. However, the Mombasa-bred terrorist was still a free man.
It is also reported that he has never featured on local most wanted terror list since 2016 despite being named listed by the US on global terror lists.
Riziki was a member of Jaysh Al Ayman, an elite unit of Al Shabaab formed in 2013. The main purpose of the cell is to carry out attacks in Kenya.
The 25-year-old, who had been radicalized at Masjid Musa mosque, dropped out of Bhadala Secondary School in Form One and joined the terror group.
After abandoning school, he operated a tuk-tuk. He later abandoned the trade and joined Al Shabaab.
