Friday January 18, 2019
Osman Ibrahim, Guleid Abdihakim, Gladys Kaari Justus, Oliver Kanyango Muthee and Joel Nganga Wainaina, left to right, appear at a court hearing in Nairobi on Friday. The court ordered that the five suspects be held as a hotel attack earlier this week is investigated. (Associated Press)
Canadian national Guleid Abdihakim and four other people suspected of helping extremist gunmen stage a deadly attack in the Kenyan capital this week appeared in court on Friday as prosecutors investigated them for suspected terror offences.
A judge ordered that the five be held for 30 days while authorities look into the assault earlier this week on the dusitD2 hotel complex in Nairobi. Al-Shabab, which is linked to al-Qaeda and based in neighbouring Somalia, claimed responsibility.
Kenyan authorities say 21 people, including one police officer, were killed by the attackers, one of whom blew himself up beside a restaurant. Another four gunmen died.
Prosecutors suspect the alleged accomplices, including two taxi drivers and an agent for a mobile phone-based money service, of "aiding and abetting" the attackers, who stormed the Nairobi complex on Tuesday afternoon and were killed by Wednesday morning, according to a court document.
Prosecutors said they were pursuing more suspects in and outside Kenya.