NAIROBI, Kenya – A court in Nairobi has allowed the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU) to hold a banker in an investigation into alleged terrorism links.
Kahawa Law Court Magistrate Gideon Kiage gave ATPU 14 days to probe Zuena Nakhumicha Machabe in suspected terrorism facilitation and recruitment. Machabe is said to have been a top banker in Kenya before allegedly crossing over into the terrorism world in 2021.
The mother of three worked with tier two banks before resigning sometime in mid-2021 and allegedly joining a terrorist group affiliated with Islamic State or Daesh, Puntland in Somalia as a logistician.
It is claimed that her role was to ensure that terrorists get travel documents and arrange their travel from Kenya, Tanzania, and Ethiopia to Somalia.
The court heard that Machabe’s shadowy life is linked to terror activities in Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, and Tanzania. She is alleged to be leading a life similar to British-born ‘white widow’ Louise Lewthwaite.
Machabe was arrested on July 27, 2023, at the Tuduma border town between Tanzania and Zambia. In court, police said the 34-year-old woman who hails from Nakuru county was nabbed while trying to illegally cross with her three children.
On January 1, 2022, Machabe through her YouTube channel “zuena machabe” shared a one minute and seven seconds video pleading for the release of her husband Ibrahim Ramadhan.
In the video, she says that she lives in Nakuru but used to live in Nairobi’s Kayole estate and pleads for help to have her husband freed by the ATPU.
“The reason why I have come here is because, on December 2, 2021, my husband Ibrahim Ramdhan was abducted by ATPU. He had gone to do his hustle at the Kariokor market and since then we have not seen him,” she says.
She says they reported his disappearance at the Kamukunji Police Station, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and the ATPU, but had not received help.
She says the reason for making the video was because she feared for his safety, adding that his family wants him home safe.
Machabe adds that calls and text messages to his phone were not going through and she is sure that he was taken by ATPU.
However, police say that her husband had left the county for Puntland. Machabe is said to have recruited him to join the Islamic State (Daesh) and organised his travels.
Further, they allege that Machabe made the video as a diversionary tactic after she had been questioned about his whereabouts and her intent to join him.
Authorities believe that she may have been used by Daesh to pass on financial support to recruits seeking to travel to Puntland.
They believe that she may have been recruited due to the nature of her work and financial knowledge.
In July this year, Police also arrested five terror suspects believed to be Tanzanians while headed to Somalia to join Daesh.
Sadam Jafari Kitia, 30, and Abdirahman Shaffi Mkwatili, 25, were arrested by security agents in Moyale, Marsabit county after they lost their direction to Somalia.
Their arrest came days after that of three other suspects Abdul Saif Salimu, Zuberi Ngare Mtondoo and Seif Abdalla Juma in Garissa after they also lost direction to Somalia.
Security agencies say that the arrest of two Kenyan brothers linked to the death of a chief and a policeman in Mombasa, as well as three Tanzanians allegedly triggered Machabe to crop up from underground life.
They believe she feared the arrest of the suspects while on transit to Northern Somalia would give her away. Bwanaadi brothers and Kassim have already been charged with four counts of terror and murder.
They were linked to murders of a chief, assistant chief, and a policeman in 2019. In the first count, Ayub, Mohammed and Kassim were charged with committing a terrorist act. In the second count, it was alleged that they killed Hesborn Okwemwa, a police officer, on October 2, 2019, in Lamu.
At the same time, they were accused of killing Mbwajumwali area Senior Chief Mohamed Haji Famau, 45, and Myabogi sub-location assistant Chief Malik Athman Shee, 43, in Haji’s office on December 12, 2019.
The other count related to their travel to Somalia. It was claimed that they received training to commit a terror act.
The court heard that the suspects had been arrested on January 9, 2014, while still trying to exit Kenya for Somalia. They again tried a second time in 2016 but their efforts were thwarted by the police. In 2016, they were en route to Uganda to join ISIS.
Source: The Standard
