Two Kenyan nationals have been sentenced to 30 years in prison for their involvement in the 2019 terrorist attack on Nairobi’s DusitD2 hotel complex, which claimed 21 lives.
The sentencing was handed down on Thursday by a Nairobi court following their conviction on terrorism charges.
The assault, which took place on January 15, 2019, saw five armed members of the Somali militant group Al-Shabaab storm the upscale hotel and office complex in central Nairobi. One attacker detonated a suicide bomb at the entrance, while police managed to kill the remaining four gunmen. During the harrowing 20-hour siege, security forces rescued around 700 people trapped inside.
Last month, Hussein Mohamed Abdille Ali, 22, and Mohamed Abdi Ali, 61, were found guilty of conspiracy to commit terrorism and facilitating the attack by aiding in its preparation.
Delivering the sentence, Judge Diana Kavedza emphasised that while the men did not directly take part in the violence, their support had made the attack possible.
“The convicts may not have physically wielded the weapons that inflicted the harm, but their facilitation directly enabled attackers armed with guns, grenades, and suicide vests,” she said.
Acknowledging the victims’ suffering, Judge Kavedza stressed the lasting impact on survivors: “Twenty-one lives were lost, and the emotional scars of the attack run deep.”
Al-Shabaab, which is affiliated with Al-Qaeda, has repeatedly targeted Kenya, often citing Nairobi’s military intervention in Somalia since 2011 as justification.
The country has faced a string of deadly assaults from the group, including the notorious 2013 Westgate Mall siege, which left 67 people dead, and the 2015 Garissa University attack near the Somali border, where 148 were killed.
