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Kenya police offers Sh2m bounty on two Al-Shabaab members

By Cyrus Ombati

NAIROBI: Police have circulated pictures of two wanted Al-Shabaab terror suspects and offered a Sh2 million reward to anyone who will provide information that may lead to their arrest.

Detectives who released the photos of the two said the suspects are behind a series of attacks in the country.

Mohamed Kuno alias Dulyadayn also known as Gamadhere or Sheikh Mahamad from Garissa and Ahmed Iman Ali alias Abu Zinira from Majengo in Nairobi are wanted and are believed to be either in Kenya or Somalia.

Deputy director of CID Gideon Kimilu said the two are believed to be behind attacks including the recent attacks in Mandera in which over 60 people were killed.

Gamadheere is Al-Shabaab‘s Jabha leader for Juba region, Somalia. He is currently in charge of external operations against Kenya.

“He commands the militia along the border and is responsible for cross-border incursions in the country,” police said in a statement, Wednesday.

The statement revealed that in the recent past, Gamadheere has intensified attacks in Northern Kenya and the Coast region, particularly Garissa, Mandera and Lamu. He has three wife’s with the first one being a resident of Huda near Ras Kamboni.

“The second wife lives in Garissa. His third wife lives in Bulla Iftin, near Bulla Iftin Secondary School, in Garissa,” the statement partly read.

Gamadhere is believed to be religious and has been a Madrassa teacher for several years. He worked for Al-Haramain Foundation between 1993 and 1995 before the institution was closed, Police said. At the time he was known as Sheikh Mahamad.

Later, he became a teacher and principal at Madarasa Najah in Garissa from 1997 to 2000 where his extremist tendencies became more manifest. He thereafter joined Al-Shabaab after being motivated by the ideology of Islamic Courts Union (ICU) to establish an Islamic statehood in Somalia.

It is reported that majority of the terror attacks in Garissa are carried out by former students of Madarasa Najah.

Most of the recruits were drawn from close family members and clan mates. Gamadhere used the ideals of caliphate governance to persuade and recruit his students to join the Islamic courts Union and later Al-Shabaab.

Gamadhere is the Al-Shabaab Jabha (Military) commander for Juba Region. The militant group has established a Jabha Unit in every region of Somalia and is charged with carrying out attacks against foreign troops. He is also credited with having an extensive terrorist network within Kenya particularly at the Dadaab refugee camp. Gamadhere claimed responsibility for the  November 22, 2014 bus attack in Mandera where 28 people were killed.

Iman is the head of the video production section within the Al-Shabaab media department and is responsible for the preparation of media themes, police said. He has two wives and one of them is a vice secretary of a mosque in Nairobi, police said.

Iman is an engineering graduate of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, and was reportedly radicalised by the late Aboud Rogo. Before joining Al-Shabaab, he had worked for a leading oil company in Kenya.

He was also the secretary of Pumwani Riyadha Mosque committee before leaving for Somalia.

Source: Standard Digital

 

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