Last week the country was in a shock when three bodies of ethnic Somali youth were found at the banks of a river in Muranga County . The bodies of Abshir Adow, Abdiaziz Yussuf and Tahliil Maxamed seem to have all pointers to torture before finally facing a painful death
Then followed the outrage by the Somali community and Muslim human rights activists over what they perceive to have been another case of enhanced disappearance and extrajudicial killing on Muslim youth all this on the backdrop of the missing of some 30 plus Muslim youth in the last three months alone
So who were these young Somali men? And who may have killed them? And Why?
My investigations into the profiles of the three indicate a complicated tango between a dreaded local gangster group the SuperPower and militant group Alshabab and a Nairobi School under police radar for alleged radicalisation
Here is a profile of the three young men that I managed to gather from different sources
ABSHIR ADOW ABDULLAHI
Age 20-21
Nationality Kenyan.
Abshir was born in Wajir and grew up in Nairobi . He cleared School in 2014 at Maina Wanjigi Secondary getting an E in his KCSE
Abshir has been identified as a member of the Eastleigh based gang Super Power
He joined the gang Superpower while still at Maina Wanjigi.
"He was suspended several times for drug peddling and abuse in school" a teacher at the school told this blog
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ABDIAZIZ YUSSUF
Age unknown but is said to be the oldest of the three
Nationality Kenyan
Abdiaziz is originally from Mandera county
He is said to have been the brains behind the gang .According to a source he organised the gang's activities.
How to buy drugs, where and how to sell the drugs, robbery and muggings executions
But more of interest to police was the alleged link he provided between the gang SuperPower and a local terror cell linked to Somali militant group Alshabab
Abdiaziz according to a source was to oversee the revenue been churned by the gang and channeled to fund the Eastleigh based terror cell
The gang he led was also commissioned to execute grenade attacks that had frequented the city recently. each gang member was to be paid for each successful grenade attack
The dreaded Superpower Gang based in Eastleigh has been in the news in recent years for its involvement in a series of robberies muggings and drug pushing in the neighborhood. The gang was started by mainly kids deported from The US and Europe for gang related cases
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Before I profile the third boy Tahliil am going back to the school in focus.... Maina Wanjigi and Why it has been on the police radar in the last one year
When the school administration decided to vet Muslim preachers coming to give the usual weekly lectures at the school students went on a rampage.
" Ever since the riots last year the school has been a focus of interest by Anti Terror Police and the administration was concerned about possible radicalisation of students" a staff seeking anonymity said
Maina Wanjigi Secondary is located on 4th Street Eastleigh
The fear of arrest led to the Index 2 of last year's KCSE at Maina Wanjigi to flee to into exile and I have learnt that the student Saadik Hure has been in hiding in Garissa. School records availed to this blog indicate that Saadik did not sit for his 2014 KCSE exams fearing arrest.
Intelligence by police strongly indicates that Maina Wanjigi may be a center of radicalisation and recruitment to Alshabab.
Infact relatives and locals will tell you of the presence of a list of students been targeted by Anti Terror Police Unit
But according to a student who cleared at Main Wanjigi Secondary the schoolbis systematically pushing muslim students into radicalisation
"The school administration has actually been giving the profile of students to the ATPU" a source close to the school told this blog
"I know of students who were falsely accused of being radicalised. These students were forced to abandon school and flee to Somali" he added
Information available to me show that there have been several attempts by a number of muslim leaders to adress the matter on behalf of the students including but in vain
"The school board is led by members of the PCEA Church" the source affirmed
What is certain is that there has been an existing friction between the administration and Muslim students
However when contacted the school brushed off allegation that it was a PCEA run institution that disregarded the needs of its majority Muslim students
And according to the School this is the board of governors of Maina Wanjigi that indicate 4 out of 12 members are Muslims. The board is chaired by Eng Wamugundu and not Pastor Martin as it had been alleged
It has also emerged that former Presidential aspirant Mohamed Diba is one of the blacklisted persons barred from addressing Muslim students at Maina Wanjigi
The School is pointing fingers at Diba for inciting Muslim students and parents after he conveyed a meeting with parents at the Eastleigh Mall sometime back. The BOG summoned Diba but he is yet to appear before it.
"It is similar concern that saw Diba shown the doors at Lenana School where he was a teacher" a source at the School says
Diba is yet to respond to this blog regarding those allegations
TAHLIL MAXAMED ABSHIR
Age 17
Nationality Somalia National
Tahlil and family fled Mogadishu Somalia in 2001 and started a new life in Kenya as a refugee
He was the youngest of the three.
He had dropped out of a private school in Nairobi
"He was just a normal boy in his teenage. He finished Primary school went to secondary but dropped out to work. I Usually send him money" said *Abdi a close relative
The family had been concern about his links to the Superpower group
"He never said anything about being a gangster. But I heard he used to take Khat and smoke" *Abdi said
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The night of their dissapearance the three had been together at a Lodge on ninth street Eastleigh. Apparently someoene had tracked them down to this lodge where they had been meeting for a chew out. A family member claims they were abducted by what they believe are police officers bundled into unidentified police car never to be seen alive again.
Family and Human rights activists are outraged over this killings
"If he did something wrong he should have been taken to court. Instead he was tortured and this makes me feel bad" A relative of one of Tahliil said to this blog
It is emerging that they may have been killed some 18 days before their bodies were found floating on a river in Muranga
