Terror suspect Ahmed Kassim Ali lists among dangerous men giving the police service a hard time and was allegedly involved in daring acts, including murdering a chief and his assistant in Lamu County on December 11, 2019.
Initial reports claimed that the two were hacked to death in their offices, barely two months after a police officer died in a similar circumstance.
According to a report by Daily Nation on Monday, December 23, police were pursuing Kassim who is also wanted for snatching a gun from an officer and trying to flee the country.
According to the police, Kassim is believed to have already crossed into Somalia through the border near Mbwajumwali.
“Police are calling on any member of the public with any information on the individual to report to the nearest police station,” read a police report as quoted by Daily Nation.
In November 2014, Kassim was mentioned as the key perpetrator in an attack at Nyali Barracks, where a soldier and six civilians were shot dead.
In the shootout that ensued, five assailants were gunned down as the rest of the gang disappeared into a nearby forest.
In October 2015, Kassim’s accomplice, Ismail Shosi, was killed by police after attacking an officer who was guarding a local bank in Mombasa.
In 2016, Kassim, who hails from Lamu, was arrested by the Anti-Terror Police Unit (ATPU) allegedly escaping out of the country.
He was nabbed alongside three other suspects at a police roadblock in Bumala, Busia County while attempting to sneak into Uganda in order to travel to Sudan and then Libya.
After the arrest, the four were charged in a Mombasa court for being members of Al-Shabaab and being in possession of chemicals used to make explosives, two rifles and 37 rounds of ammunition, among other terrorism-related charges.
The explosives had earlier been found inside a house in Majengo where Kassim’s identification card was also found, pitting him as a terror suspect.
Despite the high number of charges against Kassim, the Mombasa court released him unconditionally in June 2019, indicating lack of enough evidence to prosecute him and his accomplices.
In a meeting in Lamu held on December 17, 2019, Coast Regional Coordinator John Elungataexpressed frustration at the rate at which government officials were being killed in the area, giving a stern warning to terror suspects.
“We’re tired of losing our government officials in the hands of criminals, who are living within the community here in Mbwajumwali.
“We’re issuing a seven-day ultimatum for you to identify those who killed our chiefs [or] I will personally direct the regional police commander to immediately deploy GSU so that they can conduct massive crackdown here and produce the murderers,” Elungata warned.
