Monday November 29, 2021
A
recent report by Kenya’s security agencies has linked an Iranian
citizen, Mohammed Saeid Golabi, to terror activities in Kenya and in the
neighbouring countries.
Golabi, who is believed to visit Kenya
and the region frequently, is reportedly at the core of terror plans
targeting both local and Israeli interests in Kenya.
Multiple
police sources have told the Star that they have been monitoring
Golabi’s terror activities and some of his local associates and they are
convinced that there is a link between him and terrorism activities.
“We
have profiled him and his contacts over time. We have enough reason to
believe that he has been working with those terror groups,” said a
senior official at the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit.
Golabi is
suspected to be an Iranian intelligence officer and works with a team of
Kenyans to gather intelligence against establishments both private and
state owned with the aim attacking them.
There was no immediate comment from the Iranian government.
The
security report, seen by the Star comes against backdrop of heightened
security operations in the country following the recent Kamiti Maximum
Security Prison jailbreak by three terror convicts, Musharaf Abdalla,
Joseph Juma Odhiambo and Mohamed Ali Abikar.
The three runaways were recaptured on their way to Somalia to rejoin Somali based al Shabaab terror group.
Recently,
President Uhuru Kenyatta called upon security agencies to heighten
surveillance and other security operations to keep the country safe from
external and internal threats.
“We have scaled up our
operations and investigations on some of the leads we have. We are
constantly on the look out considering that we have been attacked
before,” said DCI boss George Kinoti.
This isn't the first time Kenyan authorities have linked would-be attacks to Iran.
In 2012, two Iranians were charged with preparation to commit a felony and possession of explosives without a licence.
Court documents indicated that the pair led security officials to 15kg of RDX explosives hidden at a golf club in Mombasa.
The
suspects, Ahmad Abolfathi Mohammed and Sayed Mansour Mousavi, both
denied the charges, said they were wrongly accused and alleged that
police had tortured them, according to court transcripts.
In
2015, Kenyan security agencies arrested two terrorism suspects with
alleged links to Iran, claiming that both men admitted plotting attacks
on Western targets.
Abubakar Sadiq Louw, 69, and Yassin Sambai
Juma, 25, were accused of terrorism and espionage on behalf of Iranian
state intelligence.
The pair "admitted to conspiring to mount
terror attacks," with the government asserting that the men's targets
"included hotels in Nairobi frequently used by Western tourists,
businessmen and diplomats."
Described as a senior figure in the
Shiite Muslim community in the capital of Nairobi, Louw was working on
behalf of the Quds Force, an elite unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guard
that has carried out covert operations in other countries, the agencies
said. Juma was allegedly one of the students Louw recruited.
According
to The New York Times of February 15, 2021, Ethiopian Intelligence,
with the cooperation of other friendly intelligence and security
organisations successfully uncovered a cell of 15 people and recovered a
cache of weapons and explosives.
The newspaper further quotes
American and Israeli officials who accused the Iranian intelligence
service of having activated a sleeper cell in Addis in the fall of 2020
to gather intelligence on United States of America and Israel.
Besides
Addis, intelligence also indicated the existence of another group that
had been preparing to attack the UAE Embassy in Khartoum raising the
fear that terrorism funders are determined to cause chaos in the region.
Concerted efforts by Kenya’s security agencies seems to have significantly reduced the number of terror attacks in the country.
They
have also been able to foil a number of terror plots, the latest of
which is the August 2021 Likoni ferry terror plot where a multi-agency
security operation led to the arrest of two terrors suspects, a Kenyan
national and Tanzanian citizen who are believed to be al Shabaab
returnees.
The security report further indicates that heightened
counterterrorism efforts by the Kenyan security agencies have eroded
operational spaces for local criminal elements with links to al Shabaab
and other terror operatives.