A Kenyan terrorism suspect who has been languishing at the US detention facility in Guantanamo, Cuba, since 2007 has been cleared for release.
The Kenyan, identified as Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu was cleared for release alongside Guled Hassan Duran; a Somalia national, by the Periodic Review Board —a government entity established during the Barack Obama administration to determine whether detainees at the facility were guilty.
Bajabu’s relatives in Mombasa were elated with the news, with his elder sister Mwajuma Rajab said she was too excited that she had to take medicine to contain her blood pressure.
She says he was a down to earth and God fearing gentleman who never troubled anyone. “I am his elder sister, we shared a father but our mothers were different.
He has two brothers and I am the one who brought him up after his mother died,” explained Rajab.
She says Bajabu was born in Kaloleni area of Kisumu and not Uganda as alleged. He was born to a Luhya mother from Vihiga County, before they travelled to Mombasa while he was still young.
He went to Madrasa in Majengo Ropa under Mwalimu Kassim and went to Tudor Primary School.
“He arrived in Mombasa alongside his mother when he was between five to seven years old and they lived in Msaji area of Majengo in Mombasa. He was taught in day madrassa by Mwalimu Kassim who is still alive to date. His was taught by the late Ramadhan Fundi for his night Madrassa,” she explained.
Soon after Tudor Primary, Bajabu would be employed by a businessman called Islaim Ali for casual jobs where his jobs were loading and unloading cartons of maize flour.
“He thereafter went to study in Sudan before he started travelling around doing his businesses. He also used to sell fish,” explained Rajab.
She says it was during his involvement with the fish business when he “disappeared in Somalia where he allegedly started his big fish outlet.
The five detainees have now been cleared for transfer by the Periodic Review Board and are eligible for release, pending diplomatic arrangements, the CNN reported.
Once a detainee is cleared for release, he cannot leave the prison until the American government works out a diplomatic arrangement with another country for them to be released to.
