MOMBASA, Kenya, Jun 19 – A Shanzu court on Monday granted detectives one week to detain four terror suspects arrested in Mombasa for allegedly planning terror attacks during the month of Ramadhan.
Three of whom were arrested in Voi en route to Nairobi on Sunday.
Shanzu Principal Magistrate Diana Mocheche has ordered that the four be held in police custody to enable police complete their investigation.
State Council Erick Masila told the court that preliminary investigations by police show that the suspects might have had a hand in the May 31 Lamu IED terror attack where four police officers and one civilian were killed.
Masila’s grounds for denying the four bond.
The four are Yayha Salim Bakari – a teacher at Masjid Majilis in Kikambala – Mohammed Masumbuko, Abdalla Ramadhan and Julius Mwandenzi alias Zinde.
They are accused of recruiting students to join terrorist organisations at madrasa in Kilifi and Voi town respectively.
“Yayha, a madrassa teacher in Kikambala offered radical teachings to students at the institution, to adapt an extreme belief namely Jihad for purpose of facilitating ideologically based violence,” read the charge sheet.
The four were arrested in a joint operation in Kikambala, Kilifi County and Voi by anti-terrorism police officers in Mombasa.
Inspector General of police Joseph Boinnet had urged for heightened vigilance during the Holy Month of Ramadhan.
He said terror threats remain real in the country due to the Somalia-based militants, despite losing a lot of operating ground in the war-torn country.
The Al Shabaab has intensified Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attacks in the border towns of Mandera, Lamu and Garrisa where police officers and civilians have been killed and several injured.