Al-Shabaab, a militant group allied to Al-Qaeda, finally released video evidence incriminating five men for the Nairobi DusitD2 attack which occurred in January 2019.
In the seven-minute clip, the profiled assailants claimed that their attack was in response to outgoing US President Donald Trump acknowledging Jerusalem as the capital city of the ‘Jewish State’, Israel.
According to media reports in Mogadishu, the video also entailed names, tribes and clans of the jihadists.
Three of the attackers revealed were Kenyan, one of who was the ring leader for the Dusit attack, while the other two were of Somali origin.
The five attackers were named as Osman Ahmed Hassan, Ali Salim, Abdigani Arap Yusuf, Mohamed Adam Nur and Mahir Khalid.
In January 2019, President Uhuru Kenyatta released a press statement saying that that five jihadists who carried out the attack had been ‘eliminated’ by security forces.
Since the attack, Kenya heightened her efforts to counter terrorist attacks. The head of state also announced a new comprehensive strategy to deal with radical extremism.
The new structure focused on multi-agency coordination, advanced training and equipment upgrades, community involvement and incentives for officers.
Kenyatta further instructed the National Intelligence Service (NIS) to investigate terror financiers funding Somali-based Al-Shabaab through illicit businesses.
On Wednesday, September 2, Interior CS Fred Matiang’i ordered the freezing of accounts and property of nine individuals suspected to be financing terrorism activities in the country.
One month later, two men accused of conspiring with the Al-Shabaab extremists who attacked Nairobi's Westgate shopping mall in 2013, killing 67 people, were handed prison terms of 33 and 18 years respectively.
Mohamed Ahmed Abdi and Hassan Hussein Mustafa, both 31, were found guilty on October 7. One suspect, Liban Abdullah Omar, was released over lack of evidence.
