One of the six attackers who stormed Dusit2D hotel-complex is son of a Kenya Defense Forces officer, investigations reveal.
A special squad of Anti-Terrorism police officers was dispatched to Isiolo at the home of the attacker – Ali Salim Gichunge.
His mother, identified as mama Ali, was arrested by the officers.
The father is said to be a KDF attached to Isiolo battalion.
Isiolo residents described Ali as a ‘local boy’ raised ‘just like any other child here’.
He attended primary and secondary school in the region.
At Ruaka in Guagong estate, the suspect was known as a lover of life who could not do a day without eating beef.
“He would come buy beef here every time he was around. He also asked meat for his cats,” Chege Kamau, a butcher at Guango estate, said.
His car had a blaring music system that announced his presence to the residents.
On the CCTV footage captured at the Dusit2D, Ali is identified as the gunman with a heavy physique.
A woman who was found in the house where Ali lived has since been arrested and police are grilling her.