Shabaab operative nabbed in Mogadishu in 2017 on the loose-Kenya police

A senior Al-Shabaab figure arrested by security forces in Mogadishu in mid-2017 is now on the loose and has crossed into Kenya, police in Nairobi have said.

The Kenya National Police Service said in a tweet Saturday Abdiwaahid Khalif Abdi alias Isse Tarabuun crossed into Kenya last week.

“The National Police Service wishes to inform Mr. Abdiwaahid Khalif Abdi alias Ise Tarabuun whose photograph appears below, a Somali national believed to have arrived in Kenya on September 24th 2019 to report to the nearest police station with immediate effect,” the tweet read in part.

The Kenyan authorities appealed to the public on information regarding the whereabouts of the militant.

In June 2017, Security Minister Abukar Islow said security forces in Mogadishu had nabbed Tarabuun, the head of Al-Shabaab intelligence and military wing in Banaadir region.

But about two years later, Tarabuun is in Kenya, according to the police there raising questions on the circumstances surrounding his release from custody.

Al-Shabaab has conducted attacks and raids in Kenya in the recent months killing a number of security forces in IED attacks in the country’s northeast.