Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet on Tuesday announced that security agents had in custody a medical intern at Wote Hospital in Makueni, involved in planning a terror attack in the country that would have been similar to the Westgate onslaught.
In a press statement, Boinnet said that Mohammed Abdi Ali, who is in the East African terror group network that has links with ISIL, was planning a massive biological attack using anthrax to kill innocent Kenyans.
“The suspects were planning a large scale akin Westgate Mall attack with the intention of killing innocent Kenyans. His network included medical experts with whom they planned to unleash a biological attack in Kenya using anthrax,” Boinnet stated.
Ali was working together with two other medical interns in Kitale identified as Ahmed Hish and Farah Dagane, both of whom went into hiding when their accomplice (Ali) was apprehended.
Police have placed a Sh2 Million bounty on the two suspected attackers alerting Kenyans on their existence.
The Inspector General noted that Ali was engaged in active radicalization, recruitment of University students and other Kenyan youth into terror networks.
“Mohammed Abdi Ali's terror network within Kenya spreads as far as the Coast Region, North Rift Region and Western Region, as well as other countries that include Somalia, Lybia and Syria,” the police indicated.
Ali's wife, Nuseiba Mohammed Haji, who is a student at Kampala International University, was arrested in Uganda while attempting to evade authorities.
Anthrax is a notifiable bacterial disease of sheep and cattle, typically affecting the skin and lungs. It can be transmitted to humans, causing severe skin ulceration or a form of pneumonia.
Anthrax attack was reported within the United States one week after the September 11 attacks. Letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to several media offices and two Democratic U.S. Senators, killing five people and infecting 17 others.
