Police kill Shabaab operative in Kwale a day after he escaped dragnet

Police in Kwale have killed terror suspect Suleiman Ali Kodza, a day after he escaped police dragnet in Mombasa.

Kodza, alias Pembe, who police have termed as Al-Shabaab ring leader in Diani was shot and killed in Ngerenya area in South Coast where he had escaped to.

"On being ordered to surrender he attempted to attack the officers using a machete which prompted the officers to shoot, fatally injuring him," reads a police report seen by the Nation.

The report adds that the suspect is believed to have been planning to carry out attacks on police officers on patrol within Likoni and Ukunda.

During the operation, police reportedly recovered five rounds of 9mm bullets, a machete and a knife.

Coast Directorate of Criminal Investigation boss Washington Njiru said the suspect is believed to have been involved in the shooting and killing of two officers who were guarding St Paul's ACK Church in Ukunda on September 2017.

During the 2017 incident, the attackers made away with two rifles belonging to the officers.

On Friday, police were on a mission to recover guns at the house of Kodza in Mkunazini Shika Adabu when they shot and killed another suspect identified as Kennedy Okaka.

Police were targeting terror suspect Kodza who was not in the house at the time of the operation.

In his house, police recovered an AK-47 rifle serial number 0669, three 7.62 special ammunitions and a gun magazine.

According to a police report obtained by the Nation, during the raid, gun shots were fired towards the officers before they responded and killed the suspect.

"The team received incoming fire and promptly responded fatally injuring Kennedy Okaka Otunge inside the said house" reads the police report in part.

Okaka's friend, who only identified himself by one name Abdul, described him as an introvert person.

He said the suspect who is a Muslim convert has been running a phone repair business from his house.

"We were a bit close with him. He has been living in the house where he has been acting as the caretaker. He converted to Islam and he was praying at the nearby mosque," said Mr Abdul.

Reliable sources told Nation that the terror suspects were planning to carry out an attack that was targeting to seize guns from police in Likoni area.

Mr Kodza and two other terror suspects from Shika Adabu have been on the police radar for quite some time now.

He was in the list of other suspects from South Coast where they have been terrorising residents.

Some of the suspects working with Kodza were named October last year to be among those being hunted by the police.

Police said the suspects are believed to be members of a terror group and termed them as dangerous.

The names were released a few days after three other terror suspects identified as Said Ramadhan Mkubwa, Salama Suleiman Mohamed and Swaleh Yusuf Abdalla were killed by the police in their house in Dudus, Likoni, and a cache of deadly weapons recovered from them.

Among the items confiscated were a G3 rifle, a hand grenade, three kilogrammes of ammonium nitrate which is used in making explosions and hundreds of ammunitions of different kinds.

The bullets included 217 rounds of 7.62mm, 490 rounds of 9mm bullets, 444 rounds of 22mm, 45 special rounds of ammunitions, 123 rounds of 12 mm.

Also recovered were 68 air rifle bullets, nine machetes, nine balaclavas, assorted military holsters and pouches and three military jungle uniforms.