Five years following the death of her husband in the DusitD2 attack in Nairobi, Violet Kemunto Omwoyo now resides in impoverished conditions in Somalia, reflecting the harsh reality of young individuals drawn into religious radicalization.
Squalor, characterized by extreme dirtiness and unpleasantness, particularly resulting from poverty or neglect, has become Kemunto’s way of life. Intelligence reports indicate that she has faced a challenging existence, being passed from one warlord husband to another, and only luck has spared her from meeting a fatal end.
As the country observes the fifth anniversary of the attack, security agencies have intensified surveillance efforts to apprehend Kemunto. Previously a journalist turned radical extremist, she was married to Ali Salim Gichunge, the orchestrator of the terrorist attack on the 14 Riverside Complex, also known as DusitD2, on January 15, 2019. Gichunge and 21 others lost their lives in the attack.
Kemunto, also known as Khadija Mahmoud, was in war-torn Somalia at the time of the attack. Intelligence indicates her involvement in the planning and execution of the attack, with promises of a better life if she supported her husband’s jihad campaign.
Having worked as a public relations intern at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development in 2014 before fleeing to Somalia, Kemunto used her position to gather information for the terror group leading up to the attack.
After her husband’s death and her escape to Somalia, Kemunto found herself in the clutches of al-Shabaab militants. She married a middle-level commander in southern Somalia, who later perished in clashes with the Somali National Army. Following this, she remarried an al-Shabaab fighter, who was killed on the Kenyan border while planting an improvised explosive device along the Elwak-Mandera road.
Presently residing in Jilib, an al-Shabaab headquarters territory, Kemunto teaches language to the children of the militant group’s operatives. Despite her background as a trained journalist with a degree from Masinde Muliro University in 2011, she adds to the list of women deceived and radicalized by al-Shabaab with promises of a better life.
Kemunto’s early life in Nairobi included attending City Primary School in Ngara and later joining Hamdan Girls High School in Mbale, Uganda. She worked as a manager at various mobile phone companies in Nairobi before resigning upon her marriage to Gichunge.
