{"id":28562,"date":"2016-09-13T00:49:19","date_gmt":"2016-09-13T00:49:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/kenya-station-attack-leader-was-expelled-from\/"},"modified":"2016-09-13T00:49:17","modified_gmt":"2016-09-13T00:49:17","slug":"kenya-station-attack-leader-was-expelled-from","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/kenya-station-attack-leader-was-expelled-from\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenya:Station attack leader was expelled from school, bright in class"},"content":{"rendered":"

{The ring leader of the terror attack at Central Police Station in Mombasa on Sunday morning was a troublesome student who was demoted from student leadership because of indiscipline before she was expelled from school.}<\/p>\n

Tasnim Yakub Abdullahi Farah sat for her Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exams last year at Qubaa Muslim School on the island.<\/p>\n

She scored a B- (Minus) aggregate grade. Her teachers believe she would have performed much better had she been a model student.<\/p>\n

Investigations by the Daily Nation show that she was the head girl at the school but was removed from the position over her delinquency.<\/p>\n

The details of Tasnim\u2019s dark past emerged as forensic experts prepared today to collect finger prints from the three bodies lying at Coast General Hospital Mortuary to establish the suspects\u2019 previous criminal records, if any.<\/p>\n

The second suspect in the attack, Fatuma Omar, went to Coast Girls High School, across the road from the scene of the attack, and sat for her KCSE exams in 2013.<\/p>\n

Police officers believe Fatuma hailed from the nearby Kibokoni neighbourhood, but information about her remains scanty.<\/p>\n

The third suspect, only identified as Mariam, had been arrested and interrogated by Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU) previously but was set free for lack of evidence.<\/p>\n

On Monday, police sources said the ring leader, Tasnim, believed to have been in her early 20s when she stormed the police station in the company of Fatuma and Mariam on Sunday, was the one who stabbed a policeman twice after jumping over the report counter.<\/p>\n

A school official, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter, described the girl as \u201ca very bright student\u201d whose performance nosedived when she started showing signs of gross misconduct and disobedience while in Form Three.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe became so rude to her teachers that she was unbearable to manage, whether in class or outside,\u201d said the official, pained by the dramatic turn for the worst his model student took.<\/p>\n

Mid last year, at the height of her rebellion, Tasnim arrived at Qubaa Muslim School dressed in civilian clothes, contrary to school regulations.<\/p>\n

She, alongside four other girls who seemed to subscribe to her notion of haughtiness, had also brought mobile phones to class, to the chagrin of teachers and the school administration.<\/p>\n

The five were reprimanded and summoned to the school principal\u2019s offices where they were ordered to take off the home clothes and hand over their mobile phones.<\/p>\n

APPOINTED HEAD GIRL<\/p>\n

They complied and changed into school uniform, but a few days later, Tasnim mobilised a group of students to break into the principal\u2019s offices and recover the clothes and mobile phones.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was on a Saturday when they broke into the offices,\u201d said the official on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were seen by fellow students and our security guard. The following Monday they were summoned to the principal\u2019s offices where they admitted committing the offence.\u201d<\/p>\n

The girls\u2019 transgressions were recorded in the school black book after which they were immediately expelled.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey sat the national exams from home,\u201d said the school official.<\/p>\n

While Tasnim was intelligent, it was her charisma and charm that stood out the most.<\/p>\n

Her ability to mobilise students caught the attention of the school administration, which appointed her the school head girl in the hope that she would use her wit and charms to their advantage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was gutted when I read this morning that she was involved in a terror attack,\u201d said one of her teachers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never expected her to go that far. We lost track of her after we expelled them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tasnim is believed to have been an orphan. Her elderly grandmother paid her school fees through the support of relatives residing overseas.<\/p>\n

Security agencies linked the young women to a terror cell based in Boni Forest, Lamu, called Jaysh Al Ayman \u2014 which has been associated with the Somalia-based Al-Shabaab.<\/p>\n

On Monday, in the wake of unconfirmed reports that a fourth male suspect had been arrested in connection with the attack, Mombasa County Commissioner Evans Achoki called for patience, saying a comprehensive statement would be issued today.<\/p>\n

\"Tasnim<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{The ring leader of the terror attack at Central Police Station in Mombasa on Sunday morning was a troublesome student who was demoted from student leadership because of indiscipline before she was expelled from school.} Tasnim Yakub Abdullahi Farah sat for her Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education exams last year at Qubaa Muslim School on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99],"byline":[2461],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-28562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-daily-nation"],"bylines":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28562\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28562"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=28562"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=28562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}