A Nairobi court has sentenced two cousins to 30 years in prison after finding them guilty of participating in a 2019 terror attack that killed 11 General Service Unit (GSU) officers on patrol along the Kenya–Somalia border.
On October 12, 2019, a GSU patrol vehicle, a Toyota Land Cruiser, was ambushed and blown up with an improvised explosive device (IED) in Abdisugow, before being sprayed with bullets.
All 11 officers on board perished in the attack, including GSU Commander Kennedy Murimi and the vehicle’s driver, Dickson Nderitu, whose relatives later testified in court.
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At the centre of the attack was Abdullahi Banati, a US-wanted terror suspect with a $10 million (Sh1.3 billion) bounty. The US has also linked Banati to the January 2, 2020, Manda Bay Airfield attack that targeted American and Kenyan forces.
Less than two weeks after the GSU attack, two cousins — Farah Ahmed Sambul, alias Faragon, and Minaj Hassan Khalig, also known as Daar — were arrested on October 23, 2019, in Harhar, roughly 15–30 kilometres from the ambush site.
At the time of their arrest, Ahmed was found in possession of two AK-47 rifles, a Tokarev pistol, ammunition, and several magazines. Hassan was carrying another AK-47 rifle and one magazine.
During the trial, the prosecution built its case on ballistic evidence, eyewitness accounts, and testimony from anti-terror officers.
Chief Inspector Tanui Bacho, then OCS Dadaab Police Station, led the arrest operation. He told the court that the two suspects were found sleeping in a thicket. Corporal Mohamed Omar Ali testified that he helped recover the officers’ bodies from the wreckage.
A ballistics expert, Senior Superintendent of Police Alex Chirchir, confirmed that the rifles found with the accused had fired bullets matching cartridges collected at the scene of the ambush.
While the pistol had no forensic links to the attack, the rifles carried Russian markings identical to those recovered at the site.
Corporal Michael Onyango of the Anti-Terror Police Unit (ATPU) narrated visiting the scene and finding GSU officer Nderitu with gunshot wounds to the head and the commander’s eyes gouged out — a chilling detail that underscored the brutality of the attack.
The lead investigating officer, Shadrack Kimeli, told the court the accused were arrested with terrorist paraphernalia, including a black flag associated with Al-Shabaab.
In their defence, the cousins denied any involvement, claiming the case was fabricated due to a family land dispute involving Ahmed’s sister, Rahma Ahmed, and her husband, a Somali police officer. They alleged the weapons were planted and that their arrest was a set-up.
However, Principal Magistrate Jackson Owange dismissed the claims, stating that the forensic evidence placed them directly at the crime scene and that there was no credible evidence of a land dispute.
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