Two men arrested with bombs, Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) and assortment of firearms and ammunition in Merti Sub County in Isiolo County intending to carry out a terrorist attack are awaiting sentencing after they were found guilty of terrorism related charges.
They are Abdimajit Hassan and Mohamed Osman Nane who were found with seven bombs and 36 hand grenades and an AK47 intended to be used in a terror attack on February 15, 2018.
They were convicted for possession of weapons for terrorist purposes contrary to section 12 (a) of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) of 2012.
Senior Principal Magistrate Zainab Abdul acquitted them of charges of conspiring to carry out a terror attack.
But the suspects were found guilty of being members of a terrorist group (the Al Shabaab) terror outfit.
They were allegedly colluding with others to bomb Milimani Law Courts before they were intercepted by the police. They were found with AK47 riffles and more than one thousand rounds of ammunitions (bulets).
In the charge, the two were charged alongside four others with embedding explosives in a motor vehicle – registration number – KBM 200D.
They were accused of making the vehicle of a Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED).
They were charged alongside taxi driver Anthony Kitila Makau alias Rasta, John Maina Kiarii who died in 2021, Lydia Nyawira and Francis Macharia Karishu.
Makau and Karishu were acquitted of all the charges but Ms Mburu who aided the two convicts’ accomplice to forge a national identity card was found guilty of the offence forgery of an official document.
She made a national ID for Jirma Huka who was killed in a shootout with police where Hassan and Nane were arrested after they surrendered.
The suspects were facing a total of 11 charges but most of the charges were dismissed. Ms Mburu, Karishu and Kiarii were facing charges of giving support to a terrorist group in contravention of section 9 (1) of the POTA but they were also acquitted of the same.
Makau was facing two counts of aiding and abetting commission of a terrorist attack where the prosecution accused him of assisting Hassan to purchase two motor vehicles in Nairobi