some of our security officials really never fail to disappoint. inept.greedy, corrupt, rotten to the core...every evil that has a name. this story clearly shows why many Kenyans who may have relevant/crucial info on these terror attacks may never report to authorities.
Kitale, Trans Nzoia County: A man claiming to have been privy to the plans prior to the September 21 terrorist attack on the Westgate Mall in Westlands Nairobi has showed up in Kitale town and claimed that he notified several government officers over the coming attack but no action was taken.
The 52-year John Muthiora Ngaruiya who confessed that he has been a robber most of his life narrated to journalists how police threatened to charge him with murder of many people that had died in the previous terrorist attacks in the country if he could not drop the wild allegations he was making about the Alshabaab coming to attack Nairobi.
Ngaruiya who claimed he had traveled all the way from Nakuru to Kitale to share the information with journalists in the area over his efforts to inform the government to avert the attack revealed that he had first reported the move to a chief in Sumek location in Nakuru over the plans by the Alshabaab but the chief tricked him and no action was taken.
"I went to the chief of Sumek location in Njoro Nakuru county and I told him about the plans that were being undertaken by the members of the Alshabaab and further showed him the Sh. 200,000 they had given me to share with other people who had been trained in Kismayu and came back but the chief did not take any meaningful action," said the suspect in a long interview with members of the press in Kitale.
He said that he used to stay at a farm belonging to a prominent personality in Nakuru known as Murugi Farm whereby the manager of the farm a Mr. Kariuki was the one who used to do highway robberies with him before he introduced the new job of recruiting the Alshabaab members from different parts of the country.
Ngaruiya who claimed that he stayed in remand for eight years from 2002 to 2010 at the Kitale prisons for counts of murder committed in Cherangany was contracted to recruit people who were willing to join Alshabaab to be trained to fight for their course in Somalia, admitted to have recruited several youths in Kapenguria and other parts of the North Rift region since 2010.
He noted that on September 1st this year, some people of Arab and Somali origin who had not been coming regularly at the farm over the recruitment exercise, came to the Muruki Farm and because he had become a confidant after Kariuki introduced him to the group he was able to know of the terror targets that they had planned to strike in the country and revealed that Westgate was to be attacked this month of September though did not know the exact date.
They were said to have taken photos of the targetted buildings in different towns including Westgate, Limuru Bata, Delmonte factory among others on their mobile phones which Ngaruiya saw while they talked and scrolled their phones.
"They showed me the buildings that they were aiming to attack in Nairobi, Thika, Limuru among others as they had saved the photos on their mobile phones," he said.
Failed attempts to alert the government
Ngaruiya revealed that on noting that the masterminds of the terror attacks were serious and had given him Sh. 200,000 to share out to some of the youths especially from the Kikuyu community who had completed their Alshabaab training in Kismayu and were back while the other Sh. 200,000 given to his boss Mr. Kariuki to share with others, he decided not to sell the lives of many Kenyans at such an amount and therefore vowed to himself to reveal the plan.
He said that he went to the Sumek chief’s office where he narrated to the administrator what was transpiring at the Murugi Farm and what it meant to the security of the country and its residents.
The chief then appreciated his effort and accepted to take the Sh. 200,000 that the suspect surrendered to him hence told him to go back to the farm to avoid any suspicion when police officers go to arrest him and his colleagues but promised to release him thereafter for the work done.
Police are said to have later gone to the farm and first arrested the whistle-blower himself and rushed him to the chief’s office by some AP officers who un-handcuffed him on arrival but surprising enough he never saw the other people who were masterminding the deal including Kariuki arrive at the office but instead the chief came back and told him that they had arrested all the rest and send them to a higher office at Njoro because they did not want him to mix with them and had also handed over the money.
They cautioned him not to go back to the farm and instead the chief gave him Sh. 2000 to leave the place for another place away from there.
The suspect therefore decided to travel to Nairobi on 4th September as he was eager to ensure that the information he had reached all the relevant arms of the government.
On arrival in Nairobi he went and booked a lodging at Githurai where he spent the night and the following day he went to Thika town bearing in mind that it was among the towns targeted by the terrorists.
He said that he sought for the audience of the DCIO and after narrating to him what was happening he was later put into a vehicle and taken to Kayole police station in Nairobi where on arrival he was bundled into a police cell.
“I was surprised after the police on learning of my revelations they took me to a police cell instead of taking me to police headquarters or CID headquarters where I could offer the information to the right people who could act accordingly,” he said.
Ngaruiya during the interview in Kitale.
So while at Kayole, Ngaruiya said that junior police officers on learning about his news they threatened him and told him to reconsider his statement not to mention anything about Alshabaab planning to attack Nairobi claiming that such claims were bound to lead him into trouble and they even told his fellow cellmates to advice him to deny such claims for him to be safe.
“They told my fellow in-mates to advice me not to ever talk of such a thing to their senior police officers because they would charge me with the murders of other people who died in the early terrorist attacks including the one that took place at Machakos country bus because they had never found the perpetrators and it was lucky to them that I had surrendered to them myself,” said Ngaruiya.
Therefore on learning of what might be of him according to police the spirit that he had of informing the government over the impending attack faded after he realized that the relevant authorities were not ready to receive such information.
Thus the following day he denied the information and thus was left to go though not happy at the way the government officers had handled him despite knowing that he had crucial information to this country.
Things therefore remained and continued the way they were and the attack took place as planned on September 21st where tens of people lost their lives as hundreds of others got injured in the attack.
He said that he never heard about the arrests of the responsible people that were to be arrested at the Murugi Farm and thus believes the chief and the AP officers got compromised in a way and let the perpetrators go scot-free and therefore accomplish one of their many missions.
Recruitment of the Alshabaab members
The suspect confessed that the members of the network through Kariuki gave him some money to go out there and convince people to join the Alshabaab.
“I was given Sh. 1000 for every recruit that I got hence I used to give them Sh. 500 as I retain the remaining Sh. 500,” he noted.
The recruits’ first stop according to Ngaruiya was at Taveta within Tsavo National park at Chumvini and Rombo areas where they received basic training majorly about the parts of the weapons and how to dismantle and assemble them but with no shooting.
However before entering the first training the recruits, Mr Ngaruiya said would meet one of the prominent leaders of the Alshabaab in Malindi or Mombasa where they discuss the terms and conditions of the new work ahead of them.
After completing the first training the recruits are thus transferred to Kismayu for the main training for fighting and are taken through Mombasa, Malindi and Mukoye at the end of the mainland before being ferried by boats to their destination.
After completing the main training the members therefore come back in the country and rejoin the society at different parts and are always used by the Alshabaabs to store the weapons at different strategic areas where they stay after they are sneaked in the country and are collected only at the opportune moment to be assembled for a ready attack according to their schedule.
Attacks to continue
The suspect further revealed to journalists that the assailants are not ready to surrender at all until the time the KDF soldiers shall be withdrawn from their country Somalia.
“Those people took an oath and are bound by that oath to fight for their right up to the very end and have swore never to relent in their decision to strike the country by killing huge numbers of its residents and destroy important properties until the government feels the pain to consider withdrawing its forces from the war-ravaged country,” he said.
According to Ngaruiya the terror attacks shall continue at certain intervals whereby a new attack comes at a time when Kenyans are about to forget the previous one, then a new one strikes.
He noted that it shall be hard for the government to flush out all the members of the Alshabaab in the country bearing in mind that people from different communities including Kikuyus, Luhyas, Luos and many others have been trained by the terror group and are out there living with people who can least suspect that they are working for the group and thus shall rise to the occasion when their time comes.
The suspect’s revelations come at a time when Kenyans including MPs and senators are asking many unanswered questions over the lapses in the security intelligence and other agencies with Nairobi senator Mike Sonko also revealing that he had also notified the security agencies over the impending Westgate terror attack but nothing was done to avert the whole thing.
Therefore if Ngaruiya’s allegations are anything to go by then the government needs to go an extra mile to secure Kenyans from the hands of the terrorists who seem to have infiltrated the whole country and are going on with their mission undeterred.
However after the interview with journalists he was taken by Kitale police officers who later told West FM that he had been handed over to the anti-terrorist police in Eldoret for further investigations.
Trans Nzoia County commander of police Lilian Okembo revealed later to us that the police are set to investigate and establish the truth of his allegations from the ground in different parts of the country that he had mentioned in his testimony.
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