The terrorist who participated in the killing of at least 14 people at DusitD2 complex in Riverside Drive, Nairobi, lived an ordinary life in Kiambu and loved listening to blaring Kenyan urban pop music from his Toyota Ractis whose unmuffled exhaust system gave its engine a loud roar.
Ali Salim Gichunge alias Idris or Farouk did not cut the image of a militant. He looked ordinary and loved a fine life.
His neighbours at Guango, a gated estate in Mucatha, Ruaka, described him as a regular guy who had no definite routine but his presence was easily recognisable due to the loud music from his car.
Guango is a middle-income estate in Kiambu County with 200 townhouses surrounded by a stone wall and razor wire. It is here that Salim lived since March 21 last year. Records at the gate show he never received any visitors.
The killer was always in blue jeans and a denim cap that covered his clean-shaven head and had dyed his goatee orange. A security guard told us he rarely used the main gate, which is manned and preferred using a back route to come in and out.
He lived in house number E9 with a woman we identified as Violet Kemunto Omwoyo who was arrested by Anti-Terror Police Unit (ATPU) officers on Tuesday night, as an operation to neutralise the terrorists was ongoing at dusitD2.
The couple was secretive and rarely interacted with neighbours. Up to Wednesday morning, Salim and Violet had never commented on the estate’s Whatsapp group since the time they were added in October last year.
Rent at the estate ranges between Sh30,000 and Sh40,000 a month for a four bed-roomed house. The two had however not paid rent for the past two months. The landlady reportedly told security guards not to allow them to remove their household goods until all arrears had been paid.
On Monday morning, just a day before the attack, Violet — through a pseudo name on Facebook known as Junior Red — put up a post selling their household property.
“We are moving out of Nairobi this week so it is a quick sale. Prices slightly negotiable,” she posted.
Going through the items they wanted to sell, we now know that they were living large. Part of the property for sale were Phat Farm loafers which go for Sh4,000, a 49-inch smart TV, a seven-seater velvet sofaset, a rice cooker and Ramtons two-door fridge which they were disposing of for Sh30,000.