Overview

• Two Kenyan citizens, Hussein Mohamed Abdille Ali and Mohamed Abdi Ali, received 30-year sentences after being convicted of conspiracy to commit and facilitating terrorism in the January 2019 DusitD2 hotel siege in Nairobi.
• Prosecutors established that the pair helped militants obtain forged identity cards to escape a refugee camp and provided funds to support the operation that killed 21 people in a 20-hour siege.
• Sentencing remarks noted that although the convicts did not wield weapons, their facilitation directly enabled attackers armed with guns, grenades and a suicide vest.
• The case highlights Al-Shabaab’s campaign of violence in Kenya as retaliation for the country’s troop deployments in Somalia, following earlier attacks at Westgate mall and Garissa University.
• Under Kenyan law, the convicted facilitators have 14 days from their June 19 sentencing to file appeals against their prison terms.