It now emerges that despite his alleged criminal involvements in Somalia and back in Kenya, Mahir Khalid Rizik remained rooted to the fact that he was married.
Mahir is the Al Shabaab militant who blew himself up near the Secret Garden Restaurant at the Dusit Complex in Nairobi, Tuesday last week.
According to a man who played a major role in the rescue mission in the course of the siege, a ring, apparently a wedding ring, remained intact on the militant's finger until his death.
Serge Medic, an armed civilian, came across a severed hand of Mahir minutes after he went up in the explosion and claims to have seen the ring on one of his fingers.
“I remember vividly it had a shiny ring on one of the fingers,” Medic told the Citizen Digital on Tuesday, a week after Al Shabaab used five militants to attack the premises.
This was half an hour after Mahir's explosion, as he led a group of some people who had been trapped inside the complex to safety.
The 56-year-old is a Swiss national and a founder of a private security firm in the nation.
He was reportedly on his way home when he was alerted of the attack, forcing him to turn back and rush to the scene.
He recalls getting himself in the middle of the fire despite worries and cautions from his parent.
"Dad, are you OK? Don’t do anything silly, please," his son reportedly cautioned him, but the determined latter ignored the call and went ahead to participate in the rescue.
Mahir was reportedly married to Suhaila Mwalim Bakari whom he left in Kenya to join fellow militants in Somalia in early 2015.