From the 15 to 16 January 2019, a coordinated attack against civilians occurred at the DusitD2 complex in Westlands District, Nairobi, Kenya. The attack began at around 14:30 EAT (UTC+3), shortly after a suicide bomber blew himself up near the center of the complex at a restaurant. Four attackers associated with Harakat Al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen carried out a mass shooting for over 22 hours which left 21 civilians, one Kenyan soldier and all five militants dead.[1][2][3][4]
Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement published through the AS-affiliated Shahada News Agency shortly after the attack, with its external operations branch, the Saleh An-Nabhan Battalion, claiming being responsible.[5]
Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta said that the five militants that carried out the attack were all "eliminated" by security forces following a 19-hour operation led by Kenyan forces.[6]
In the lead-up to the attack, the militants used various methods to prepare for the attack. Some of the attackers are believed to have entered Kenya through El-Wak in Mandera Country, and made their way to Nairobi to meet with the operational leader, Ali Salim Gichunge, and to receive instructions on their role on the attack. A few weeks before the attack, one of the cars, a Toyota Ractis, was allegedly parked near the target location. According to a street vendor, the car was often seen parked by the roadside with the occupants remaining inside or occasionally leaving to get coffee. Two days before the attack, a restaurant waiter noticed one of the terrorists, identifiable by a significant scar on his hand, visiting the restaurant and ordering coffee.[11] Following ballistic examinations, the weapons obtained by the attackers were found to have been Type 56-2 assault rifles, which are AK-47 variants manufactured in China and are commonly used with attacks carried out by the Al Shabaab. The Somali National Army also uses similar firearms which were purchased from Ethiopia in 2013, likely suggesting these were firearms seized by Al Shabaab in the numerous raids perpetrated on the SNA by the militant group.[12]
Attack
At 14:30 on 15 January 2019, a Toyota Ractis containing four of the attackers pulled into the driveway of the 14 Riverside Drive complex, while a fifth attacker, Mahir Riziki, separately made his way to the Secret Garden Restaurant. Riziki stood near the restaurant for about a minute before blowing himself up, killing seven patrons and hotel staff.[13] Simultaneously, the four other attackers ditched their car near the entrance of the complex, and began opening fire.[14] They threw two grenades at nearby parked cars at the entrance gate, setting them alight, then split into groups of two, with the first group making its way to the Hanover office block and the other group heading towards the Secret Garden Restaurant on the other side of the building where Rikizi had detonated his explosive vest. The gunmen regrouped and arrived at the far end of the complex, killing six people. They then entered the DusitD2 Hotel, and opened fire at the remaining guests inside.[9] Initial reports were of gunfire and two explosions at the hotel, with one originating from the suicide bomber and the other from the grenades thrown by the shooters.[4][15][16][17] The Recce company, the anti terrorism division of the Kenya police force, General Service Unit, were sent in to combat the militants.[2][18][16] Members of private security forces and unarmed individuals along with some off duty police officers were first to respond.[citation needed]
A British SAS operator, who was in the country to conduct training, responded to the attack and entered the complex.[19] Known by his nom-de-guerre, Christian Craighead, he wore a shield badge on his tactical vest and a balaclava over his face, while indicating an "Agent" insignia to bystanders.[20][21] He was joined by Dan J. Prastalo, a Slovenian and member of the Diplomatic Protective Services Tactical Response Unit (DPS-TRU[22]).[19][23][21] Craighead led the group clearing each floor of the office and car park buildings. They were heard shouting call sign "Eagle Eagle Security Forces" as they tried to call out hostages that were hiding. Both individuals were seen on the mainstream media clips escorting groups of hostages and carrying wounded ones, before running back into the complex while the attackers were shooting down on them.[24][25]Australian High Commission security detail also exchanged fire with the terrorists as they made their way into the complex, injuring one attacker.[15] While it had been thought that the attack had been neutralized after a few hours, gunfire and explosions were again heard early on 16 January.[26] Craighead shot and killed two of the attackers and was awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross for his extreme bravery.[23][27]
President of KenyaUhuru Kenyatta initially said that 14 people had been killed;[9][26] later on 16 January it was reported that 21 civilians and five attackers had been killed.[28] Almost a year after the attack, on 3 January 2020, hotel nurse Noel Kidaliza, who was critically injured during the attack, died of her wounds at a hospital, bringing the death toll to 22.[29]
The attack left at least 21 dead including a number who subsequently died of their wounds, and some 30 more injured, some critically. President of KenyaUhuru Kenyatta initially said that 14 people had been killed;[9][26] later on 16 January it was reported that 21 civilians and five attackers had been killed.[28] Almost a year after the attack, on 3 January 2020, hotel nurse Noel Kidaliza, who was critically injured during the attack, died of her wounds at a hospital, bringing the death toll to 22.[29] Nineteen Kenyan citizens, an American and a British-South African man died during the attack.[31][32] On the same day, the Australian embassy denied allegations that one of the fatalities was an Australian.[33] Initially both Kenyan and Australian media houses had stated that one of the victims was an Australian citizen and was visiting his girlfriend in Kenya before his death in the attack.[34][35]
Perpetrators
Five men are believed to have carried out the massacre. Three of the attackers were Kenyan, while the other two were Somali. Within days of the attack, the Kenyan government had released the names of two of the attackers and was able to confirm the identity of a third attacker but withheld their name, while the other two Somali attackers weren't identified until December 2020 following Al-Shabaab's media wing, Al-Kataib, releasing a film showing them in the days prior to the attack. [36]
Ali Salim Gichunge (born 1995), also known as Abu Sakeena, was the operational leader of the attack. he was born in Isiolo to a Muslim Kikuyu family, with his father being a serving KDF soldier.[36] He studied at Hekima Primary from nursery to Standard Six. He sat his Kenyan Certificate of Primary Education exam in 2007 and scored 355 out of 500 possible marks. After graduating secondary school at Thuura Boys High School in 2011, he studied IT and was hired by a local hotel to manage its internet cafe. In early 2016, Gichunge informed his family that he had begun working at a construction site in Mombasa after being invited to do so by a friend, however the friend told the family a month later that he had lost all contact with him. Gichunge then told his family that he had begun studying Islam in Uganda. In 2017, he contacted his family saying that he was in Lamu to leave the country, but said he would return soon, however the family did not hear from him for two years.[37]
Mahir Khalid Riziki, (born February 5th 1993), also known as Jibril, was the suicide bomber who blew himself up at the Secret Garden Restaurant on 14 Riverside Drive. He was born and brought up in Majengo area of Mombasa, and was a known extremist with a history of violence. He had been a frequent attender at the Musa Mosque, a place commonly associated for nearly a decade as a key radicalization and recruitment center for Al-Shabaab, where he met Ramadhan Hamisi Kufungwa, a recruiter and member for Al-Shabaab. In October 2014, Mahir was implicated in the killing of a police officer in Mombasa and following a warrant for his arrest, he fled to Tanzania in November 2014. By early 2015 however, he had told his family that he was now in Somalia training with Al-Shabaab.[38] Just two days before the attack, on January 13, 2019, Riziki had re-entered Kenya through El-Wak in Mandera Country, and took a bus to Nairobi to link up with the attack cell leader, Ali Salim Gichunge and to obtain instructions on what his part in the attack would be. He blew himself up just 48 hours later.[39]
Osman Ahmed Hassan, (born 1992), also known as Azzam, was one of the gunman involved in the attacks. He was born in Wajir, Kenya and was of the Degodia tribe. He allegedly received no formal education and was a mechanic. The video released by Al-Shabaab in 2020 shows him speaking to the other attackers in both Swahili and Somali in an apartment block in Nairobi, as a video of Osama Bin Laden plays in the background.[40]
Muhammed Adam Nur, also known as Farhaan Yare, was one of the gunmen involved in the attacks. He was born in Somalia and was of the Hadame tribe.
Abdulqani Arab Yusuf, also known as Farhaan Dheere, was born in Somalia and was of the Muhammed Zubayr sub-clan of the Ogaden clan.
Responsibility for the attack
Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen claimed responsibility for the attack shortly after in a statement released via Telegram by the AS-affiliated "Shahada News Agency". Soon after, Al-Shabaab released a two page statement in both Arabic and English titled "Jersualem will never be Judaized". The militant group said that it “carried out this operation – code named Operation ‘Jerusalem will never be Judaized’ – in accordance with the guidelines of Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahiri,” and claiming that the attack was executed due to the US recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Al-Shabaab stated that the external attack unit known as the "Saleh Nabhan battalion", named after the Al Qaeda operative killed in a drone strike in Somalia, was responsible.[5]
Investigation
Immediately after the incident concluded, the 14 Riverside Drive complex and its immediate environs were closed to public as police termed the area an active scene of crime.[41] Security agencies were able to trace the residence of the terror suspects to Kiambu, Mombasa and Nyeri counties.[42][43] Further investigations revealed that the suspects had lived in a nearby residence for three months. On the day of the attack, the suspects put their household items up for sale on Facebook, announcing plans to move out of Nairobi. Hours after the attack, anti-terrorism police raided their home, arresting two women and seizing evidence. The Toyota Ractis driven by Ali Salim Gichunge to the entrance of the DusitD2 complex is later found to have been rigged with explosives, which are later detonated by police shortly after. Investigators find two mobile phones, a Safaricom SIM card, a Nokia Phone without a sim card and a black HP elite book laptop, all of which had had been extensively damaged were all recovered. The SIM card led to the first person of interest named in the court papers with one name Erik. It is from Erik’s ID Card, which investigators say had registered 11 other SIM cards that were connected to two taxi operators, an M-pesa agent and a Canadian national. Investigators say Salim’s mobile phone numbers were used to call to several phone numbers traced to Somalia. [44] On 19 January 2019, five people appeared in court accused of assisting in the terrorist attack, among them a Canadian-Somali.[45][46] By the 21st of January, 11 people were detained for allegedly aiding the attackers.[47]
Once the DusitD2 Hotel had been secured, photos began circulating of the bodies of the attackers wearing red bandanas with the writing saying “At Your Service, O Al-Quds” (Arabic: لبيك يا القدس, romanised: Labbayk Ya al-Quds). The writing on the bandana corroborates with the statement released by Al-Shabaab claiming that the attack was retribution for the US recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. In January 2023, the US Department of State’s Rewards for Justice program offered a USD $10 Million dollar reward for Mohamoud Abdi Aden, who is believed to have been part of an operational cell to have aided the attackers
Aftermath
On 17 January, the Kenya Red Cross Society informed the public that all who had earlier been listed as missing had been accounted for.[48] The National Police Service was lauded for its well-organized response that saw close to 700 people being rescued from the hotel complex.[49][48]
In popular culture
In the game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019), the playable operator “Otter” is based on the British SAS Christian Craighead.[50] Craighead has written a book about his involvement in the incident which was refused express prior authority to publish which he sought to overturn in the courts, however, his appeal was dismissed.[51]
The 2002 Mombasa attacks were a two-pronged terrorist attack on 28 November 2002 in Mombasa, Kenya against an Israeli-owned hotel and a plane belonging to Arkia Airlines. An all-terrain vehicle crashed through a barrier outside the Paradise Hotel and blew up, killing 13 and injuring 80. At the same time, attackers fired two surface-to-air missiles at an Israeli charter plane. The Paradise Hotel was the only Israeli-owned hotel in the Mombasa area. The attacks were believed to be orchestrated by al-Qaeda operatives in Somalia in an attempt to disrupt the Israeli tourist industry on the African continent. Much speculation has occurred as to who the perpetrators are, but no complete list of suspects has been defined. The attack was the second al-Qaeda terrorist operation in Kenya, following the bombing of the U.S. embassy in Nairobi in 1998. Following the attack, the UN Security Council and other nations condemned the bombing.
Fazul Abdullah Mohammed was a Comorian-Kenyan member of al-Qaeda, and the leader of its presence in East Africa. Mohammed was born in Moroni, Comoros Islands and had Kenyan as well as Comorian citizenship. He spoke French, Swahili, Arabic, English, and Comorian.
Samantha Louise Lewthwaite, also known as Sherafiyah Lewthwaite or the White Widow, is a British terrorist who is one of the Western world's most wanted terrorism suspects. Lewthwaite, the widow of 7/7 London terrorist bomber Germaine Lindsay, is accused of causing the deaths of more than 400 people. She is a fugitive from justice in Kenya, where she is wanted on charges of possession of explosives and conspiracy to commit a felony and is the subject of an Interpol Red Notice requesting her arrest with a view to extradition.
Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan also known as Abu Yusuf, was an operative of al-Qaeda in Somalia. He was listed on the FBI's third major "wanted" list, the FBI Seeking Information – War on Terrorism list, for his association with multiple attacks in Kenya in 2002, as well as his possible involvement in the 1998 United States embassy bombings, in which over 250 people lost their lives.
The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) was a Multinational force formed by the African Union. The operation deployed to Somalia soon after the Islamic Courts Union was deposed by troops from Ethiopia during a large scale invasion in late 2006. The missions primary objective was to maintain the regime change between the ICU and the newly installed Transitional Federal Government, implement a national security plan and train the TFG security forces. As part of its duties, AMISOM later supported the Federal Government of Somalia in its war against Al-Shabaab. AMISOM was the most deadly peacekeeping operation in the post-war era.
Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen, commonly known as al-Shabaab, is a transnational Salafi Jihadist military and political organization based in Somalia and active elsewhere in East Africa. It is actively involved in the ongoing Somali Civil War and incorporates elements of Somali nationalism into its Islamist cause. Allegiant to the militant pan-Islamist organization al-Qaeda since 2012, it has also forged ties with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
There is a significant crime rate in all regions of Kenya. Petty offences are the most common crime with stealing being the most reported crime. Robbery and theft are among the least cited criminal offences. Crime in Kenya is comparable to Tunisia, with a rate of 3.46 crimes per 100,000 people. However, crime in Kenya often goes unreported and police may lack the training or experience to effectively respond to crimes. Despite the reported low crime rate, Kenya faces significant challenges with organised crime, with many gangs working with corrupt police officers and sometimes even the government. Kenya has a criminality score of 7.02 on the Organised Crime Index, the 16th-most in the world, an improvement from 11th in 2021.
The Somali Civil War (2009–present) is the ongoing phase of the Somali Civil War which is concentrated in southern and central Somalia. It began in late January 2009 with the present conflict mainly between the forces of the Federal Government of Somalia assisted by African Union peacekeeping troops and al-Shabaab militants who pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda during 2012.
From late 2011 to 2014, Kenya experienced an upsurge in violent terrorist attacks. Kenyan government officials asserted that many of the murders and blasts were carried out by al-Shabaab in retaliation for Operation Linda Nchi, a coordinated military mission between the Somalian military and Kenyan military that began in October 2011, when troops from Kenya crossed the border into the conflict zones of southern Somalia. According to Kenyan security experts, the bulk of the attacks were increasingly carried out by radicalized Kenyan youth who were hired for the purpose. Kenya security officials also indicated that they were part of death squads, which carried out many of the killings under the orders of a government security council. By mid-2014, the cumulative attacks began affecting Kenya's tourism industry, as Western nations issued travel warnings to their citizens.
Aboud Rogo Mohammed was a Kenyan Muslim cleric. He was alleged to have been an Islamist extremist and was accused of arranging funding for the al-Shabaab militia in Somalia. He was shot dead in Kenya, and his death triggered protests and violence by hundreds of protestors. Rogo is the fifth alleged Islamic radical killed in Kenya in 2012. David Ochami, a Kenyan journalist, stated that Rogo had the oratory prowess of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and the logic of Egyptian ideologue Yusuf al Qaradawi.
Many terrorist attacks have occurred in Kenya during the 20th and 21st centuries. In 1980, the Jewish-owned Norfolk hotel was attacked by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). In 1998, the US embassy was bombed in Nairobi, as was the Israeli-owned Paradise hotel in 2002 in Mombasa. In 2013, the Somali jihadist group al-Shabaab killed 67 people at Nairobi's Westgate Shopping Mall. There have also been many other attacks.
The Somali–Kenyan conflict has been an issue within Kenya since the colonial period. Problems have ranged from skirmishes between the two communities and have led to terrorist attacks, police harassment, extortion, home invasions, physical violence, and massacres perpetrated against Somalis and Kenyans.
On 21 September 2013, four masked gunmen attacked the Westgate shopping mall, an upmarket mall in Nairobi, Kenya. There are conflicting reports about the number killed in the attack, since part of the mall collapsed due to a fire that started during the siege. The attack resulted in 71 total deaths, including 62 civilians, five Kenyan soldiers, and all four gunmen. Approximately 200 people were wounded in the massacre.
On 16 May 2014, two improvised explosive devices were detonated simultaneously in the Gikomba market in Nairobi, Kenya, killing at least 12 people and injuring 70. The first blast came from a minibus and the second from within the market. Two people were reportedly arrested at the site of the explosions. Shortly after the attacks, hundreds of people swarmed onto the crime scene despite police efforts to stop them.
On 2 April 2015, gunmen stormed the Garissa University College in Garissa, Kenya, killing 148 people, and injuring at least 79. The militant groups Al-Qaeda and Al-Shabaab, which the gunmen claimed to belong to, took responsibility for the attack. The gunmen took over 700 students hostage, freeing Muslims and killing those who identified as Christians. The siege ended the same day, when all four of the attackers were killed. Five men were later arrested in connection with the attack, and a bounty was placed for the arrest of a suspected organizer.
Events of 2019 in Kenya.
The Latema road blast was a minor terror incident that occurred on 26 January 2019 on Latema road in Nairobi's Central Business District. The attack occurred after luggage containing an improvised explosive device detonated while it was being carried on a mkokoteni cart, injuring two people.
On 6 December 2019, at least 11 people, including seven police officers, were shot dead on or outside a bus in Kenya. The Medina Bus Company vehicle and its passengers were attacked on a road in a rural area between Wajir and Mandera in northeastern Kenya. Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack.
This is a 2019 timeline of events in the Somali Civil War (2009–present).
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
Al-Shabaab 
United States 
United Kingdom 
Australia 
Slovenia 
Uhuru Kenyatta 
Samson Mwathethe 
Joseph Kipchirchir Boinett
