British woman linked to Mombasa night club blasts
A British woman has been linked to Sunday’s attack on a Mombasa night club that killed three people and injured 25 others.
The woman, Samantha Lewthwaite alias Natalie Faye Webb has been on the run since December last year when she escaped a police dragnet in Mombasa.
Lewthwaite, a mother of three, is a widow of Jermaine Lindsay, who blew up a Piccadilly Line train in London on July 7, 2005 that killed 52 people and injured several others.
However, Coast provincial criminal investigation officer Ambrose Munyasia denied the reports by the Daily Mail of London.
The newspaper reported that the Briton is suspected to have masterminded the Sunday night attack at Jericho Beer Garden at Mishomoroni, in Mombasa mainland north.
The newspaper said a police official told its reporter that shortly before the attack, a white woman fitting Lewthwaite’s description was seen acting suspiciously and asking questions about the bar.
She was with two men of Asian features. “We suspect Samantha Lewthwaite was actively involved in the terrorist attack on the club,” the police official said.
But Mr Munyasia said they were only holding a Kenyan who was injured during the attack and who is expected to give the police more information.
Before she fled from Mombasa to Somalia, police had suspected Lewthwaite of planning a terrorist attack in the coastal town and when they raided her house they found weapons and bomb-making material.
The 28-year-old soldier’s daughter from Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire is suspected to have fled to Somalia before returning to Kenya.
“Police believe Samantha is back in Mombasa and is playing an active role in hand grenade attacks,” another security agent said.
“A white woman, fitting Samantha’s description, was seen with two middle-aged Arab men asking questions about the bar before the attack.
“She really stood out as it is very unusual for a white woman to be here and dressed in Muslim clothes.” The suspicious trio had also been spotted near churches in Mombasa.
Ms Lewthwaite, a university dropout, is being hunted by the CIA, the Kenyan Police and Scotland Yard, which has sent a large team to Nairobi to assist with the investigation.
Before she fled from Mombasa, she had been travelling in Kenya on a false passport belonging to Natalie Faye Webb, an Essex nurse who has no links to terrorism and has never been to the East African country.
Northern Ireland
Ms Lewthwaite was born in Northern Ireland, where her father Andrew, who was serving in the army, had met her mother, Christine.
They separated when Ms Lewthwaite was 11 — an event friends suggest was key in her seeking solace in Islam, and converting to the faith at the age of 15.
She met King’s Cross bomber Lindsay in an Islamic chatroom when she was studying religion and politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies in central London.
She married the Jamaican-born carpet fitter in an Islamic ceremony in Aylesbury in 2004.
When her 19-year-old husband blew himself up in 2005, claiming 26 lives, she was eight months pregnant with their second child, a daughter. She had a second son by an unknown father in 2009.
Ms Lewthwaite’s family in Aylesbury — she is the youngest of three children — say they have not seen her for years.
Her alleged accomplice in December’s bomb plot, 29-year-old Londoner Jermaine Grant, is on trial in Mombasa.
Mombasa and Nairobi have suffered a series of bomb attacks since Kenyan troops entered Somalia in October to crush Islamist militants.
Hours before Sunday’s bombing, the US embassy issued a warning of an imminent terrorist attack in or around Mombasa. (READ: US embassy pulls staff out of Mombasa)
Police are holding a man in connection with Sunday’s blast. The suspect comes from Kaloleni in Kilifi County and is admitted to the Coast General Hospital with leg and hand injuries.
He was arrested after failing to explain what he was doing around Jericho Beer Garden in Mishomoroni when the blast went off.
The blast came barely a day after the American Embassy warned of an impending terrorist attack in the coastal town.
The government reacted angrily to the advisory, with the Head of Public Service Francis Kimemia terming it as “a betrayal of trust” after the two governments had agreed against issuing further alerts.
The attack came as the government prepared a new anti-terrorism Bill proposing life sentence for terror suspects and seizure of their properties to compensate victims of their violence.
The Prevention of Terrorism Bill, 2012, replaces the Suppression of Terrorism Bill of 2003 that was withdrawn over claims of violating human rights.
The new law proposes creation of the Compensation of Victims of Terrorism Fund that would be funded by proceeds from the sale of property of terrorists and fines imposed on those convicted.
The Bill has been received with mixed reactions. Some MPs have vowed to reject it in Parliament, while Muslim religious leaders and professionals have backed it with some amendments.
At the same time, Mombasa residents have accused security agencies, especially the National Intelligence Security Services (NSIS), of sleeping on the job.
