How cleaning up after bomb blast landed Mombasa woman in trouble

On June 10, 2019, an improvised explosive device (IED) went off at a residential house in the Swabrina neighbourhood of Likoni in Mombasa County.

Ms Leila Omar Rashid, in whose compound the device had been assembled and went off, had then decided to clean up after the blast.

That would mark the beginning of her troubles, as she has since been making endless trips to the courts to clear her name.

The explosion caused panic in the neighbourhood, prompting officers from Anti-Terror Police Unit (ATPU) to rush to the scene.

Ms Rashid was arrested alongside Mr Swaleh Juma Salim, who was seriously injured during the explosion. 

The ATPU officers also arrested Mr Abdulhamid Islam Shahad and Zamda Omar Mwashima, whose son the police alleged had been involved in the assembling of the explosive.

Investigations

After two weeks of investigations, Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji pressed terror charges against Ms Rashid and Mr Salim.

The state accuses the two of conspiring with others who are still at large to commit acts of terrorism.

Mr Salim faces a second charge of being in possession of an IED.

Ms Rashid is also accused of interfering with a crime scene by cleaning up after the explosion occurred.

Yesterday, the officer investigating the matter, Mr Edapal Elias, told the court that cleaning up the scene after the explosion was the woman’s undoing.

 Mr Edapal told Mombasa Senior Resident Magistrate Ritah Amwayi that by tidying up the scene, Ms Rashid effectively sabotaged investigations.

“We wouldn’t have charged her with any offense had she not cleared the scene. She is not linked to the terror suspects who assembled the IED,” said the officer.

Mr Edapal further told the court that forensic examination conducted on the materials including clothing did not connect the woman to the bomb-making materials that were recovered at the scene.

The officer clarified that Ms Rashid was not among suspects on the ATPU radar, but she had denied the police an opportunity to collect crucial evidence to press serious charges against those who were involved.

“We would have arrested more suspects and pressed serious charges on them but crucial evidence had been tampered with,” he told the magistrate.

“Only her son was on our radar but we arrested her for destroying evidence that would have helped us in this case,” said Mr Elias during cross-examination by the suspects’ lawyers Jared Magolo and Chacha Mwita.

According to the investigator, the injury Mr Rashid suffered during the explosion shows he took part in assembling the IED.

“He was bleeding when we arrested him. The forensic analysis of the suspect connects him to the explosive materials recovered at the scene of the explosion,” the officer said.

IED exploded

 Mr Salim appeared in court for the first time in 2019 with a bandaged arm, which police said was an injury he suffered when the IED exploded on him.

The police produced in court documents confirming Mr Salim had been treated at Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital following the incident and before being handed to the ATPU for further investigation and arraignment.

Mr Edapal further told the court that mobile phones and several exhibits believed to be components of an IED recovered at the scene were subjected to forensic examination by the Bomb and Hazardous Materials Disposal Unit and ATPU forensic lab in Nairobi.

The court heard that analyses of these materials linked them to Mr Salim.

The detectives told the court that forensic examination of the mobile phones recovered from the scene indicated that some of the suspects who escaped during the explosion had been in constant communication with a number of well-known terrorists based in Somalia and their sympathisers in Kenya.

The court also heard that the suspects and their associates were planning a terror attack in the country but the explosive detonated by accident.

The case continues.

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