Salim Rashid Mohammed: The Kenyan Prodigy Who Became an Islamic State Fighter in Mozambique

Salim Rashid Mohammed: The Kenyan Prodigy Who Became an Islamic State Fighter in Mozambique

Salim Rashid Mohammed, a former Kenyan university student who became a jihadist, is now the latest concern for security agencies in East Africa. The 27-year-old has been maturing as a militant and has attained leadership status since joining Islamic State (IS) in Mozambique. Mohammed had studied computer science in Kenya and abroad. However, his career saw change when his father enrolled him in a Turkish university around 2010. Between then and now, he joined the ranks of the Mozambican wing of  Islamic State in Central African Province (ISCAP) as a jihadist (The Citizen, September 8, 2021).

Disappearance from Kenya

Mohammed vanished from Kenya in October 2020. His disappearance was announced after he skipped a court trial for a case in which he had been charged with being an al-Shabaab member. He had been released on bond before fleeing the country. The details of the disappearance remained scanty until Kenyan security agencies reported a video emerging that showed Mohammed beheading a victim in Mozambique. His presence in Mozambique had been further confirmed by security agencies’ forensic analysis of another ISCAP suspect’s phone calls, which showed communications between Mohammed and the suspect, Richard Kivatsi. According to the security agencies, Kivatsi had been communicating not only with Mohammed but also another terrorism suspect, Ali Alfan Juma, from their mutual hideouts in Mozambique (The Citizen, September 8).

Back in Kenya, the police have been warning that Mohammed is armed and dangerous, and a warrant of arrest has been issued for him. According to some sources, in late August, Mohammed briefly sneaked into Kenya, but escaped a police ambush to slip back into Tanzania and then Mozambique. He was apparently one among other militants planning attacks on the anniversary of the death of Sheikh Aboud Rogo, an al-Shabaab ideologue who was assassinated on August 27, 2012 in Mombasa City. Two other suspects, netted in the operation intended to capture Mohammed, had an AK-47 rifle and material used to make Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) (The East African, August 28).

“Chotara’s” Youth: Following the Trendlines of East African Jihadism

Mohammed’s metamorphosis is the key to understanding how the bright youth of East Africa can be radicalized and recruited into Islamist militancy. With exceptional skills and good education, many others like him have become targets of IS and al-Qaeda recruitment in the region (Daily Nation, June 29, 2015). In the recent past, terrorist networks have sought to recruit students with science backgrounds, including chemical, electrical and mechanical engineering, and Mohammed’s case is no different (Terrorism Monitor, January 7, 2015).

Mohammed’s life story begins in Mombasa, a predominantly Muslim coastal city of Kenya, where he was born in 1986. Local friends nicknamed Mohammed “Chotara,” a Swahili word for a person born of a white father and a black African mother, because of Mohammed’s mixed looks. His family was middle income and resided in the Kizingo area of the city, which is a prosperous and secure part of Mombasa.

Growing up on the Kenyan Swahili coast with the customary traditions of Muslims there, Mohammed started his early education in Qubaa Muslim School, a private institution in the Majengo area, where he completed his nursery and basic education. However, Majengo has since become the focus of local and international security agencies for emerging as a breeding ground of Islamist militancy. At the center of radicalization was Musa Mosque, which was associated with the late Sheikh Rogo, among other fiery preachers. Before Rogo was gunned down by unknown assailants suspected of being Kenyan security forces, his ideology most certainly transferred to the young Mohammed (The Standard, February 3, 2014). Indeed, when Rogo was killed, Mohammed was 17 years-old and in high school, but it can be inferred that activities around the mosque, which was near his school, had much influence on him. The mosque’s radical preaching and distribution of extremist Islamist literature is why security agencies shut it down.

Leaving the University for Turkey and Syria

For his high school education, Mohammed attended Abu Hureira Academy, a non-profit Muslim community school in the Mvita area of Mombasa. At the academy, he received a good score on the final high school examination, with the government offering him admission at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, a public university near Nairobi. Mohammed turned down the offer and instead enrolled at the Mombasa Technical University for Computer Engineering studies. After one year, he dropped out of the university and joined a private college for computer studies, however (The Citizen, September 8).

It was after this that Mohammed’s father decided to send him to Turkey to complete his studies at Kultur University in Istanbul. It is believed that while in Turkey, Mohammed snuck into Syria for militant training. In 2016, Turkish authorities arrested Mohammed alongside Nasra Hyder Faiz, a Kenyan woman, as they both crossed back into the country after training with IS in Syria. The two were deported from Turkey and arrested by Kenya’s Anti-Terrorism Police (ATPU), but were soon released for lack of evidence in 2017 (Capital News, February 18, 2017).

Since 2017, Mohammed has been linked to several failed terror attacks in Nairobi and Mombasa. In 2019, he was arrested at the Moi International Airport in Mombasa and charged with being an al-Shabaab member (Africa News, June 11, 2019). Furthermore, Mohammed had been found with material used to make Improvised Explosive Devices, including twin stranded wires, batteries connected in a series, an inductor coil and white explosive powder. After securing his release and paying a 1.5 million Kenyan shilling (US$15,000) bond, Mohammed attended every court hearing of his case until October last year when he vanished. The disappearance was recorded by the police on December 12, 2020 (The Citizen, September 8).

Conclusion

The rise of Mohammed is an indicator of how East Africa is losing its dependable youth to Islamist militancy. While his case is one of the latest to reach the security services’ radar, some evidence suggests that there are many more. Seemingly, local and international security agencies need to tighten their focus on Mozambique, which has become the latest battleground for jihadists from East Africa, including Mohammed.