Written by David Indeje 2011-10-28 13:03:00 Read 1401 Times

Kenyan, Elgiva Bwire Oliacha, who confessed to being a member of the extremist AL Shabaab insurgents sentenced for life.

Bwire, 28, had  pleaded guilty to the grenade attack on the bus station on Monday, and also admitted to charges of illegally possessing a large cache of arms, including 13 grenades, an AK-47 rifle, a machine gun, four pistols and 717 ammunition rounds without certificates.

Subsequently, a day after Police commissioner Mathew Iteere revealed of two people having been arrested, Omar Muchiri and Stephen Macharia, kenyan nationals,  denied charges of being members of Somalia’s hardline Al Shabaab militia and being an accomplice to to Bwire.

Thursday, when he appeared before Nairobi Chief magistrate gilbert Mutembei, he confessed of being a member of al-Shabaab, the Somali rebel group that Kenyan troops are seeking to push away from its borders.

Bwire had also disclosed that his job as an Al Shaabab member, was to store fire arms and provide them when needed.

In Bukoma village in Budalang’i constituency, family members led by Joackim Ouma said that Bwire moved to Nairobi with his family three years after his birth, where he schooled from.

“He disappeared for the last six years without even coming home. And we believe quite well that he cannot remember anyone in this home area,” said Ouma who is his uncle.

The grandmother of the convict Regina Mudiva said that she understands him as an upright boy who was never associated with any crime and was heartbroken to hear from neighbors that her grandson was arrested in Kayole Estate, Nairobi where he was seized with 13 live hand grenades despite being involved in attacks.

She revealed that among her four children whom Bwire’s father Nicholas Oliacha is the first born, she had never witnessed any of them involved in crime since their childhood as portrayed by her grandson. 

 “This family has had no criminal record at all and this is quite shocking to hear that my grandson Bwire was involved in such an act against the law,” said the grandmother of the 28 year old suspect.

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