Most wanted: 'Gentle' ex-teacher is alleged mastermind of Kenya terrorist attack

[TheHumanLeague]

Most wanted: 'Gentle' ex-teacher is alleged mastermind of Kenya terrorist attack

Alleged mastermind of al-Shabab assault in Garissa is Kenyan and has been described as 'gentle'

PUBLISHED : Monday, 06 April, 2015, 12:24am
UPDATED : Monday, 06 April, 2015, 12:43am

The Guardian in Nairobi

Arrest warrant for Mohamud.

He is a quietly spoken former teacher known to some as Dulyadin and Gamadhere - meaning "long armed" and "ambidextrous". Now he is one of Kenya's most wanted men.

The alleged mastermind of the terrorist attack in Garissa that left 148 people dead is a Kenyan national, illustrating how national boundaries have become blurred in the country's war with Somali-based al-Shabab.

Mohamed Mohamud, believed to be a close friend of al-Shabab leader Ahmed Omar Abu Ubeyd, is now the subject of a bounty of 20m shillings (HK$1.67 million) for his suspected role in organising the attack.

He has several other aliases, including Kuno, and is thought to be responsible for leading al-Shabab's operations in Kenya. Mohamud, who is in his mid-40s and has three wives, was linked to the audacious attack on the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi and was recently accused of orchestrating 12 militants in a plot against the Kenyan parliament.

While Mohamud did not take part physically in the Garissa attack, students who survived the massacre described the attackers as men like him: speaking Kenya's Swahili language well, with some suggesting they may have been Kenyan too.

The poster of Mohamud shows a slender man with a short beard. An AFP correspondent who met him in the Somali capital Mogadishu in 2008 and 2009, when the majority of the city was under al-Shabab control, said Mohamud was a well-known and feared commander.

He commanded a much feared Islamist unit in Mogadishu called the Jugta-Culus, or "heavy strikers", who carried out some of the toughest fighting.

Mohamud, however, also appeared in person as educated as well as "quiet and gentle".

His career began conventionally enough as an engineer who earned a degree from Jomo Kenyatta University in Nairobi in the early 1990s.

He worked for the Saudi-based Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, according to Kenya's Star newspaper, and was then a teacher and principal of a madrassa, or Islamic school, in the town of Garissa.

But he became increasingly radicalised and crossed the border into Somalia, joining the Islamic Courts Union. After that movement collapsed, he held a variety of positions in al-Shabab. He is alleged to have been behind several attacks on Kenyan troops who are fighting al-Shabab in the Jubaland region.

Two of his wives reportedly live in Garissa while a third is residing near Ras Kamboni, a town in Jubaland.

Mohamud is rumoured to have built a large network of al-Shabab sympathisers and operatives in his home country, especially in Dadaab, the world's biggest refugee camp.

Peter Aling'o, a senior researcher at the Institute of Security Studies in Nairobi, said: "Kenya should also look at this as an internal problem."

Mohamud is also understood to have been a key aide for former al-Shabab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane in carrying out the 2013 Westgate mall attack in Nairobi, earning Godane's praise.

Sources say Mohamud, who speaks Kiswahili and English fluently, was able to cross from Somalia to Kenya.

A Kenyan official said: "He commands the militia along the border and is responsible for cross-border incursions in the country. In the recent past, he has intensified attacks in northern Kenya and the coast region, particularly Garissa, Mandera and Lamu."

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse