One of the suspected masterminds of the deadly DusitD2 terror attack in Nairobi on Tuesday was a 'calm student whose dream was to become an engineer', police sources have established.
Mr Ali Salim Gichunge alias Farouk was initially reported to have died during the attack but contradicting information has emerged suggesting that he's among those in police custody.
His father, Abdalla Ali Gichunge, a KDF sergeant, reportedly gave an insight about his son, whom he described as a 'brilliant and calm' boy whose trouble my have started in 2010 after his marriage with the boy's mother came to an abrupt end.
According to the father, Farouk, a devoted Muslim, completed his secondary education at Isiolo Baracks High School in 2011.
However, Farouk did not attain grades that allow him to join university where he could study engineering.
And after a brief stay at Isiolo, Farouk is said to have moved to his mother, Salma Gichunge's maternal home in Majengo Nyeri where he lost his contact with the father.
"I lost contact with him in 2015. I tried to establish from the mother but she also insisted that she had lost touch with him as well," he reportedly said in a statement.
It's from Majengo where his father believes that he was lured to Mombasa where he was possibly radicalised while teaching Islam in madrassa.
"I think he may have joined Al Shabaab while in Mombasa. I was shocked to see him on TV as one of the suspects."
By Thursday, Police are said to have summoned his mother Salma and had also arrested one Violet Kemunto, who is believed to have been living with him as wife in Ruaka.
At least 21 people died during the deadly attack that caught the country by surprise. Gichunge is believed to have hosted the terrorists a day to the attack.