Self-confessed militiaman attended Mashujaa Day
The man who confessed in court to being a member of Somalia’s Al-Shabaab militia group attended Mashujaa Day celebrations at the Nyayo Stadium in Nairobi last week.
Mr Elgiva Bwire Oliacha’s mother, Mrs Jacinta Bwire, said she bumped into him at the function also attended by President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
In an interview with NTV at Nairobi Area CID headquarters where she had gone to record a statement, Mrs Bwire said that was her first meeting with her son since February 2010.
Son pass by
“I was shocked to see him. I immediately grabbed him and asked where he has been,” Mrs Bwire said, adding that it was her first time ever to attend national celebrations.
It was also her first time to visit Nyayo Stadium.
Mrs Bwire works with the Nairobi Water Company.
It was after the rains, which disrupted the celebrations, had subsided when she saw her 28-year-old son pass by.
There was tight security screening people who attended the fete following fears of Al-Shabaab attacks.
She said Elgiva, the third born of her five children, told her that he had been in Mombasa and had only returned to Nairobi in August. He told her he lived in Githurai.
“He said he is a computer repairer and that he normally operates from a house,” Mrs Bwire said.
Elgiva, Mrs Bwire said, promised to visit her last Sunday but called on Saturday to give her his mobile phone number and to also introduce a woman he said was his wife of seven months.
She said she was surprised to see in the news her son having been arrested with firearms and confessing to be a member of the terror group.
Although as a mother she was hurt by the arrest “but as a Kenyan, I thank God because he was arrested before he could destroy the whole country.”
She said the weapons her son was found with could have been used to cause more mayhem in the country and eliminate many people.
“He is no longer mine. He is for the government,” Mrs Bwire said of her son.
Mrs Bwire, a Catholic said she first realised her son had converted to Islam when he went home with Muslim clothing in 2007.
The family, she said, was unhappy with Eligiva’s action that he always looked isolated.
Elgiva who attended primary school in Dandora, Mrs Bwire said later disappeared from home in February 2010 and that the family never had further contacts with him until October 20 when they met.
Thirteen grenades
“We even reported his disappearance to police,” Mrs Bwire said.
She said his son was humble and respected and like doing house work and repair works
Meanwhile, the 13 grenades that were recovered by police in Kayole were the same type as that which was hurled inside a downtown pub on Monday morning.
Police identified the explosive as a Russian-made F1 type grenade. Police Commissioner, Mathew Iteere, however said that type of grenade were not used by the Kenyan security forces, implying that they must have been brought into the country.
