By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Two men were on Thursday slammed 30 years in prison for aiding a 2019 attack by members of al Shabaab militant group on a hotel and office complex in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, in which 21 people were reported dead.
The court had in May found Hussein Mohammed Abdile and Mohamed Abdi Ali guilty on charges of facilitation and conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism for helping the al Qaeda-linked Islamist group to launch the deadly attacks but they denied wrongdoing.
Delivering her judgement, Judge Diana Mochache said that without their involvement, the attack may not have succeeded.
“Without financiers, facilitators and sympathisers, terrorists cannot actualise their activities,” Mochache held.
It could be recalled that in January 2019, several gunmen had stormed the Dusit complex in the capital Nairobi, launching an assault and siege that lasted more than 12 hours.
Authorities at that time claimed that every member of the group involved in the attack had been neutralised.
Prosecutors said Abdile and Ali helped two of the attackers obtain forged identity cards that allowed them to escape from a refugee camp and provided financial support. Both individuals have 14 days to appeal their sentences.
Al Shabaab regularly carries out attacks in Kenya to try to pressure the government to withdraw peacekeeping troops from Somalia, where the group is waging an insurgency in an attempt to seize power.
