Convicted terrorist Joseph Juma Odhiambo had been sentenced to 15 years in jail before he escaped from Kamiti prison, his father now wants the government to hold him until he dies.
Joseph Odhiambo (30), Musharaf Abdalla alias Alex Shikanda (34) and Mohammed Ali Abikar (35) were arrested in Enzio forest in Mwingi East, Kitui County after escaping from Kamiti prison.
The three terror convicts escaped from Kamiti Maximum Prison on November 15th morning were arrested on Thursday November 18th.
Odhiambo was first arrested on November 20th 2019 while attempting to enlist with the Al Shabaab terror group in Somalia.
He was sentenced to 15 years in jail before he escaped from Kamiti Maximum Security Prison and was eventually captured in Kitui.
Patrick Odhiambo, Joseph Odhiambo’s father, wants the government to give his son a merciless sentence for attempting to escape from Kamiti.
Odhiambo’s father believes that for his son’s terror links and his escape from jail he should be behind bars for a long time.
“Because of what he did, the government should add more years on top of the ones he was serving. He will find me long dead and buried. He will only be shown my grave,” his father said.
Patrick said his terrorist son deserves a harsher punishment because of his wayward ways that started in his childhood; he said efforts to return him to the straight and narrow always hit a brick wall.
Patrick Odhiambo said his son scored 336 marks in the KCPE exams when he sat in 2008 at Mukhwala Primary school, but did not continued his education. His twin sister, however, went ahead with her studies and is currently in college.
After school, Juma slipped into Uganda where he sold scrap scrap metal. Not long afterward, he returned to Kenya and sided with his mother Florence Odhiambo who had separated from his father and lives in Kibra, Nairobi.
“So he chose his mother [over me] and went to stay close to her in Nairobi,” his father said.
In Nairobi, his mother helped him get a security guard’s job at Mugoya, South C. This is where he became a soft target for radical teachings and converted to Islam.
After converting to Islam, Juma Odhiambo regarded his parents and siblings as unbelievers (wakafir) and insisted on puritan religious views.
In 2012, he told his mother he was quitting his job and moving to Mombasa to study religion. His mother refused.
“I told him not to go. I refused to let him go and told him that I brought him to Nairobi for work, not to leave my hands to go to Mombasa. Instead of going to Mombasa, just go back home,” Florence said.
Months later after moving to Mombasa, Odhiambo was arrested with another man in Liboi, Garissa, while on their way to Somalia to join terror group Al-Shabaab.
He was charged and ordered to pay a fine of Ksh30,000 or spend six months in jail, he served the six month sentence because he couldn’t afford the fine.
Shortly after being released from jail, Odhiambo returned to Somalia, got arrested and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
He was arrested on November 21st 2019, in Bulla Hawa in Somalia on his way to enlist as an Al Shabaab fighter.
His mother revealed she had started an appeal process for her son and had already enlisted a lawyer — only to be hit with the news of the escape.
Related: Mother Of Kamiti Terror Escapee Musharaf Abdallah Sheds Light On Son’s Past Life
