Two terror suspects were Thursday found guilty for two terror related charges over the 2019 Dusit D2 terrorist attack.
At least 21 people were killed in the attack on January 15 2015.
Mohamed Abdi Ali and Hussein Abdille Mohamed were found guilty and convicted of two charges. The charges were Conspiracy to commit a terrorist act contrary to section 23(2) as read with section 23 (4) of Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) and Facilitation of a terrorist act contrary to section 9A of POTA.
Justice Diana Kavedza of Kahawa Law Courts set June 19, 2025 as the date for sentence hearing. The case was prosecuted by Duncan Ondimu.
Several people were left with injuries and traumatized.
Kenya has been a victim of terrorism and the prosecution said the conviction was a win in the efforts to tame the crime.
Justice Kavedza found that the prosecution had proven its case beyond reasonable doubt against the two on all charges except count two, for which both were acquitted.
The two were found guilty of conspiring to commit a terrorist act that resulted in the deaths at the Dusit D2 Complex.
Additionally, Hussein Mohamed Abdille Ali was convicted of facilitating a terrorist act, in violation of Section 9A of the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
Mohamed Abdi Ali faced further convictions on 14 additional counts.
The court found that he had facilitated the attack by transferring a total of Sh836,900 via M-Pesa to Ali Salim Gichunge, also known as Farouk or Erick Kinyanjui Munyi — the deceased attacker and a member of the Al Shabaab terrorist group.
These transactions occurred between October 14, 2018, and January 12, 2019, in the Soko Mbuzi area of Mandera County.
Prosecution presented a total of 45 witnesses whose testimonies were pivotal in securing the convictions.
The first accused, Mire Abdulahi, had previously entered a plea bargain with the prosecution and was duly convicted and sentenced.
Prosecution has requested the imposition of the maximum penalty, with sentences to run consecutively rather than concurrently, and called for the cancellation of bond for the second accused.
The court ordered the preparation of a probation report within 21 days, to be submitted by June 17, 2025.
Furthermore, the bond for the second accused was revoked, and he was remanded to Kamiti Maximum Security Prison.
The matter is scheduled for a sentencing hearing on June 19, 2025.
Investigators said Mohamed Abdi Ali was an al-Shabaab financial facilitator who operated within Mandera County and was arrested on April 19, 2019 at the Mandera Local Forex Market and arraigned in court on April 23, 2019.
This followed investigations into the attack after he was established to have facilitated Ali Salim Gichunge aka Farouq aka Abu Sakeena, the slain operational leader of the DUSIT D2 attack through a number registered to himself and his deceased brother.
Mohamed sent a total of Sh558,200 to Farouk to facilitate the surveillance of several buildings in Nairobi and the purchase of materials to be used during the attack.
Mohamed had also sent Sh130,700 to individuals linked to the foiled Merti VBIED.
Mohamed Abdi Ali had joined the lucrative unregulated forex exchange business to fend for his 20 children and three wives.
He did not own a physical shop but had a vending stand where he posed as a mobile/street forex exchange trader.
He used to operate within the Mandera Soko La Sarafu that mainly targets Ethiopian and Somali visitors to Kenya at Siftu– Kenya/Ethiopia border.
Prior to his arrest, Mohamed had been operating his forex trading business for close to eight years and would exchange the Ethiopian Birr to Kenyan Shillings and US dollars to Kenyan Shillings.
Additionally, he introduced money transfers on behalf of clients using his mobile number, to stay afloat in the market and beat competition.
Mohamed claimed that he had no preferred money transfer agent where he deposited or withdrew cash but would search for agents with the amount he intended to deposit or withdraw.
He made profit by selling currencies at rateshigher than the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) rates and buying currencies at lower rates than CBK standards.
He would also get a commission for transacting with his personal lines.
Five months prior to his arrest, an Ugas (Somali elder) whom he could not clearly remember approached him with $ 3,000. The elder requested the cash to be sent in instalments to a phone number which belonged to a Gurale (A non-Somali), ingestions show.
The elder had left him with the cash in trust which he promptly transferred as requested. However, he claimed to have forgotten the name and how he had saved the number of the Ugas and the Gurale.
Hussein Mohamed Abdille, was arrested on January 31, 2019 in Mandera township. Hussein was arrested after he was linked to have picked up a parcel sent by Farouk on July 7, 2018 at Makkah Bus in Mandera.
The subject was also linked to an individual who facilitated the movement of Violet Kemunto Omwoyo, the wife of slain al Shabaab DUSIT D2 attacker and plotter Ali Salim Gichunge aka Farouq, in Mandera to Somalia on January 11, 2019.
Abdille was also linked to individuals associated with the Merti foiled VBIED attack.
Abdille received and accommodated Osman Nane and Mbarak (deceased) and other militants involved in the Merti VBIED, in Mandera.
Additionally, he was also sent a photo of Samatra, one of the slain DUSIT D2 attackers by a Somalia based al Shabaab operative and was instructed to forge a school ID linked to Arabia Secondary School, using the photo, for the al Shabaab operative.
He was also instructed to send a parcel/bag to Violet Kemunto, wife to slain DUSIT D2 attacker Ali Salim Gichunge after she fled to Somalia.
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