This archive report was first published on 27 July 2019.
On 14 Riverside Drive, a complex in Nairobi's Riverside area, a devastating attack occurred on January 15, 2019, leaving at least 21 people dead. The mastermind behind the attack was Ali Salim Farouk Gichunge, alias Idris, a man who seemed harmless but had a dark secret.
According to neighbors at Guango, a gated estate in Mucatha, Ruaka, where Gichunge lived with his wife Violet Kemunto Omwoyo, he was a regular guy who always wore blue jeans and a denim cap. However, he was secretive and rarely interacted with neighbors, and his rent of KSh 40,000 per month was unpaid for two months.
On the day before the attack, Violet Kemunto, through a pseudo Facebook account, posted an advertisement selling their household property, including a 49-inch smart TV, a seven-seater velvet sofa set, and a rice cooker. The items were to be sold quickly, as the couple was moving out of Nairobi.
Just a month before the attack, Gichunge had his car modified with a skull design on the rear, which he had specifically requested. He also had lunch with six of the suspects at Chicken Inn on Limuru Road just hours before the attack.
Forensic experts matched the fingerprints of Gichunge and Eric Kinyanjui, who were killed in the attack, and teams were dispatched to their villages. The two men were believed to have converted to Islam recently.
