Six suspects believed to have been involved in the massacre of 148 students and staff of Kenya’s Garissa University appeared in court this week.
Mohamed Surow, Osman Dakane, Mohamed Abikar, Hassan Aden, Sahal Hussein and Tanzanian national Rashid Charles Mberesero alias Rehani Dida appeared alongside 12 others also said to have committed terrorism-related crimes.
The six were brought to Milimani Law Courts under heavy security and spent close to an hour in the basement before they were arraigned in court where the prosecution requested that police detain them for 30 days. Milimani resident magistrate Benson Nzakyo remanded Surow, Dakane, Abikar, Aden and Hussein for 30 days in various police stations pending investigations into the attack.
“After considering the application by the State and concerns raised by the prosecution, it is clear the recent Garissa University attack is a matter of public interest and for this reason I allow the State to continue detaining the suspects until investigations are completed,” Mr Nzakyo said in his brief ruling. He directed that the suspects be produced in court on May 7 for further directions and ordered Mberesero to be availed in court once investigations are over to explain his presence at the university.
The court heard that Mberesero was arrested after he was discovered under a bed in the hostel where the killings took place. When he was interrogated, he said he was a student at the university and gave his name as Rehani Dida. However, he later he changed his name to Rashid Charles Mberesero after university authorities denied knowing him.
State Counsel Daniel Karori said the evidence gathered so far had established that Surow worked in a hotel in Garissa town where the attackers who invaded the university ate their meals. “Further evidence shows the first suspect (Surow) and the attackers were well known to each other,” Karori told court. Mr Karori further told the court that Dakane was a security guard at the university and that while members of the public were assisting in the removal of bodies, he was seen making phone calls and taking photographs.
“When security agencies noted him taking photographs of the scene, he failed to explain the purpose of the said photographs and started uttering words as if reciting a Qur’an verse,” Karori said. “Investigations so far carried out on his call data records indicate that he was communicating with Somali telephone numbers suspected to belong to Al-Shabaab operatives connected with the attack,” Karori told court
