Police arrest Nyeri man in terror photo

A man who claims that the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) wrongfully used his photo, labelling him a terrorist, has been arrested by officers from the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU)

Nyeri Central Sub-County Police Commander Paul Kuria said the 27-year-old Robert Gathogo was transferred to Nairobi by the ATPU officers on Friday morning.

According to the police boss, Mr Gathogo, a resident of Kamakwa, Nyeri, saw his photo in the media.

"He surrendered to the police station on Wednesday night claiming that he was the man in the photo captioned as Abdurahman Hija but the information accompanying it was not his," he said.

According to the DCI post, the suspect hails from Nyeri County and is part of a criminal gang that used to terrorise Nyeri town residents before escaping to Somalia.

"He joined Al-Shabaab in 2016 and after undergoing training and fighting in Somalia, he was dispatched to the country to carry out attacks,” said the DCI.

 Mr Kuria said that there could be a mismatch of the photo used for the poster. According to him, the police got access to Mr Gathogo's photo when he was convicted of robbery with violence charges in 2014.

Gathogo, however, appealed the decision and was acquitted of the offence in January 2019.