UPDATE: The highly anticipated judgement on the 3 suspects linked to the Westgate terror attack of 2013 has been adjourned.
In his statement, Chief Magistrate Francis Andayi revealed that this was due to time constraints.
He went on reveal that the final decision would be delivered on Wednesday, October 7.
Officers from the elite Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU) surrounded the Milimani Law Courts on Tuesday, October 6.
Armed and dressed in full combat gear complete with face masks, the officers formed a protective perimeter around the building where 3 suspects linked to the Westgate terror attack of September 21, 2013 awaited their fate.
Seven years after the horrific attack, the judgment is set to be read out.
However, a suspected terrorist attack on the very day, in Mandera South, seems to have necessitated the need to beef up security.
There has been no confirmation whether the presence of the highly skilled officers is connected to the Mandera bus attack that took place a few hours earlier.
The ATPU is a unit within the Directorate of Criminal investigation mandated to mitigate and investigate terrorism related cases in the country.
It was formed in the year 2003 as a unit based at the Police headquarters to investigate all Terrorism matters.
This was after several terror attacks were experienced in the country for example U.S Embassy (1998) and the Kikambala (2002) terror attacks. The escalation of such events shifted the line of thought that terrorism is a European problem and or phenomenon.
One of the key roles is to prevent, disrupt and interdict terrorist activities within the country, which could explain their presence at the courtroom compound.
The Westgate terror attack left an indelible scar in the hearts of Kenyans.
At least 67 people were killed in the assault on the upmarket Westgate shopping complex. Somali Islamist militant group al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack.
The gunmen attacked the luxury shopping mall in the Kenyan capital, tossing grenades, spraying shoppers with bullets and holding parts of the building for four days.
The 3 suspects currently on trial, Liban Abdullahi, Hussein Mustafa and Ahmed Abdi, are charged with 12 counts, some jointly others separately.
They are jointly charged with counts one and two with a commission of a terrorist act and conspiracy to commit a terrorist act respectively, contrary to the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
They are also charged with giving support to a terrorist group, aiding a terrorist group and being in the country illegally.
Prosecutors spent more than five years gathering evidence against the men, in part because more than 145 witnesses offered their testimony.
Watch a short clip of the ATPU officers outside the Milimani Law Courts below:
An Anti-Terror Unit at Milimani Law Courts ahead of ruling on the fate of Westgate Mall attack suspects pic.twitter.com/ENBMUdFrFt
— Citizen TV Kenya (@citizentvkenya) October 6, 2020
