Kenyan security personnel on Thursday recaptured three terror convicts who escaped from Kamiti Maximum Security Prison in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, Monday, said government sources.
Senior government officials confirmed the arrest of the trio at a remote village in the southeastern county of Kitui as they were trying to escape to Somalia to rejoin al-Shabaab, the al-Qaida linked terror group.
Fred Matiangi, the cabinet secretary for the Interior and Coordination of National Government, said intelligence provided by local communities led to the arrest of the terror convicts, adding elite security units were mobilized to arrest the three terror convicts who were said to be armed, dangerous and planning to carry out retaliatory attacks in the country.
Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) George Kinoti said the three terror convicts — Musharraf Abdalla Akhulunga alias Zarkarawi, Mohammed Ali Abikar and Joseph Juma Odhiambo alias Yusuf — were brought to Nairobi.
The police had placed a bounty of 60 million shillings (about 534,935 U.S. dollars) on any individual who would provide information leading to the arrest of the three al-Shabab militants.
Abikar was charged and convicted in 2019 over his links to al-Shabab and for abetting the Garissa University attack in April 2015 that left 148 people dead, while Odhiambo was arrested in 2019 for trying to join the Somali terror group. Akhulunga was arrested in 2012 over a foiled attack on Kenya’s parliament and charged with possessing explosives, ammunition and firearms.
