Photo/LABAN WALLOGA/NATION The house in Mombasa, where the suspect was living, that police say belongs to a wife of former terror mastermind Musa Hussein Abdi.
By ANTHONY KITIMO akitimo@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Sunday, January 29 2012 at 22:29
Posted Sunday, January 29 2012 at 22:29
Anti-terrorism operations in Kenya suffered a setback last week after a British woman suspected to be an Al-Shabaab financier eluded a police raid in Mombasa and sneaked out of the country.
The escape of the suspect, identified as Ms Natalie Webb, has raised deep concern within the security organs as the circumstances point to possible complicity.
The Nation has reliably learnt that a senior officer with the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit involved in last Tuesday’s botched operation has been summoned to Nairobi and an investigation ordered into how the suspect escaped.
Top police officers in the region declined to comment on the issue, terming it “sensitive”.
Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe confirmed that they had raided an Al-Shabaab safe-house and recovered 60 rounds of AK-47 ammunition, but no arrests were made.
He added that it was unfortunate that the occupants managed to escape. “We knew the general location, but got the exact place just after the suspects had escaped,” said Mr Kiraithe.
He said the suspects were on the run but police had a lot of details about them, including DNA. Coast police boss Aggrey Adoli confirmed that a joint force raided a house in Mombasa.
However, according to impeccable sources within the terror fighting unit, the woman was actually found in the house, but was allowed to escape under mysterious circumstances.
Providing information
The raid at the Shanzu area was carried out by officers drawn from the Flying Squad, the General Service Unit and the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit.
The National Security Intelligence Service was also involved in the operation and provided information on her whereabouts.
Nation journalists who have been on the trail of the investigators for the last one week, confirmed from police that the house where the suspect was living in belongs to a wife of former terror mastermind Musa Hussein Abdi.
Abdi, a Kenyan known by colleagues in the terror networks as Dheere, was killed alongside another terror mastermind, Fazul Abdullah, in Somalia last year. (READ: Fazul man was freed by Kenyan court)
A team of officers had managed to track down the suspect and kept the house under surveillance for a number of days.
More information indicated that several bags from a local bank, that are usually used to ferry money, were found at the suspect’s house.
Igniting explosives
Ms Webb is believed to have fled with a bag containing bundles of US banknotes, more than 500 fuses used in igniting explosives, and a laptop.
The laptop was recovered a day after the botched operation, with its screen smashed and disk drive removed.
Documents indicated that the British woman had a South African passport with a visitor’s visa stamped on it.
The visa indicated that she entered Kenya on November 21 last year and it was to expire on February 4 this year.
Investigators have also discovered that the name on her passport did not match the one on her birth certificate.
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