A Mombasa court Thursday granted police 21 days to investigate two men suspected of recruiting youths to join Somalia and DRC-based terror groups.
An investigating officer told Senior Resident Magistrate David Odhiambo that Hussein Yusuf Mrafi and Ali Mwalimu Mwinyi are suspected ISIS and al Shabaab recruiters.
They are suspected to have committed the offence of Recruiting of Members of a Terrorist Group contrary to Section 13 of the Prevention of Terrorism Act No. 30 of 2012.
Detectives believe tha Mrafi, 27, and Mwinyi, 21, may be part of a terror cell brewing in Likoni sub-county, Mombasa County recruiting youths to join ISIS and al Shabaab terrorists in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia.
Odhiambo heard that the suspects used the late Sheikh Aboud Rogo’s radical teachings to racialize others to join the terror network.
The Investigation officer further submitted that the two have two mutual friends that have gone to join al Shabaab after listening to the radical teachings.
The officer linked the two to a man called Nassor nicknamed ‘Rogo’ suspected to had gone to join al Shabaab, who got radicalized “after accessing videos of Aboud Rogo’s preaching from the social media site TikTok”
The two respondents allegedly informed detectives that there are others who are still using Aboud Rogos teachings to radicalize and are yet to be arrested.
The Investigating Officer told the court he needed 30 days to conclude investigations including taking three phones seized from the first suspect for forensic analysis.
In his ruling, Odhiambo granted the investigator 21 days to complete his investigation directing the matter to be heard May 7 2024.