“Puzzling and like a movie series” is how residents of Muchatha in Kiambaa, Kiambu County, describe ducit terror attack after learning the fugitives had sleeper cells among them but unknown.
However Mucatha is not new to crime .
In 2018 , a gang, whose identity, number and motive remain a mystery was said to have descended on the area at the beginning and executed 20 cases, out of which eight had resulted to death 12 others injured.
When Dusit hotel was struck, investigations led police to Guango Estate, Muchatha, where one of the attackers in the 14 Riverside terror incident had been living, coughing up more than Ksh.40,000 in monthly rent.
Officers who stormed house No E9 where the attacker had been living in discovered a hole in which a cache of weapons had been stashed.
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.
Had never commented
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.
According to a resident of the estate for 25 years, Dominic Njoroge, the attacker was just like any other ordinary residents of the estate.
“This is a gated community. We have never had any security incident,” Njoroge told Capital FM News.
Every house has a 10 metres long perimeter wall which is fitted with an electric fence.
“The estate is guarded on a 24-hours basis. We also have frequent police patrols,” Njoroge said.
Detectives camping at the estate were hoping to piece together his movements, possible accomplices and those who may have aided in the attack.
The Riverside attack left 14 people dead and scores of others injured.