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According to police sources who did not want to be named, Abubakar, who hails from Majengo area in Mombasa, is among key militant leaders launching terrorist attacks against the East African nation.

He was arrested with Anti-Terrorism Police Officers with Grant and two others as they planned to detonate explosives in Mombasa on December 20 2011, charged for being in possession of explosives, being a member of an organised group and preparation to commit felony.

Abubakar jumped bail in November 2011 after he, and the two suspects — Grant’s wife Warder Breikh Islam and Frank Ngala — were granted a bail of US$235 000 each and one surety.

But Ngala remains in custody after failing to raise the bond. Warder and Abubakar, who are both Kenyans, raised the bond, but the latter disappeared after the first hearing of the case. An arrest warrant was issued and he has repeatedly ignored police summons. Grant (29), a Muslim convert from Newham, in East London, was sentenced to three years in prison for using false documents that claimed he was a Canadian called Peter Joseph.

Grant, who had earlier been jailed after being found guilty of being in the country illegally and conspiring to commit crime, including lying to the court that he was a Canadian by the name Peter Joseph, was charged on January 12 2012 alongside two other suspects who are Kenyans. Grant was charged with Abubakar and Warda Breik Islam of being in possession of explosive materials.

Senior officers from the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU) yesterday confirmed that Abubakar entered Somalia through the Kenya-Somalia border in Lamu this year. A senior ATPU member said Abubakar is suspected to be co-ordinating the terror activities in the country by funding and training youth to fight in Somalia and launch attacks in Kenya.

Abubakar, an ally of Jermaine Grant, was working with fugitive Samantha Lewthwaite, the widow of London underground bomber Jermaine Lindsay, as financier of Al-Shabaab. — Xinhua.