Moses Kabali, a Ugandan national, has been sentenced to five years in prison by the Kahawa Chief Magistrate Court.
Kabali faced hoaxing charges under Section 26 of the Prevention of Terrorism Act No. 30 of 2012. Before arraignment, it was established that on June 30, 2024, Kabali emailed the Interpol General Secretariat in France, requesting them to inform Kenyan security agencies, specifically the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU), of an imminent terrorist attack by a known terrorist group.
He further alleged that two individuals known to him working with other unknown terror operatives were planning to carry out an imminent terror attack in Kenya by use of Improvised Explosive Devices.
The ATPU detectives launched investigations where they arrested a female suspect whose phone number was mentioned in Kabali’s report.
Upon questioning, she disclosed that the said phone number had been registered using her ID card but was being used by her cousin.
A manhunt for the said cousin ensued, and she was arrested in Eastleigh, Jam Street, on August 31, 2024. However, further investigations revealed that she had no links to any terrorist group and was unaware of any planned attack.
To unravel the mystery, Moses Kabali was arrested on September 3, 2024, at the California Group of Schools in Eastleigh. A search of his residence led to the seizure of two mobile phones, two laptops, and various documents. Forensic analysis at the Anti-Terrorism Forensic Laboratory revealed that Kabali was the author of the said email as the same was found to have originated from his yahoo mail account.
It was further established that Kabali authored and sent the malicious email to the Interpol General Secretariat in France acting out of anger to punish his wife whom they had separated.
Kabali was arraigned to face the charges and the matter came up for sentencing before Hon. Gideon Kiage where the accused was sentenced to a fine of Sh5,000,000 and in default to serve a term of 5 years imprisonment.