Anti-terror units are now racing to address growing concerns new cells are emerging, especially in Western region.
This seems to have been confirmed on December 6, when a man used a suicide bomb to kill himself and his parents in Katito, Nyakach, Kisumu county.
Joseph Odhiambo Ondiek aka Pope went to the homestead of one Petro Onyango and his wife Mary Atieno, whom he found seated with their daughter Nancy Aoko and started to question them.
Suddenly, an improvised explosive device that he was carrying went off, killing Pope and the couple aged about 55.
The couple’s daughter sustained injuries and is admitted in a hospital.
Sources within police said the bomber is a returnee from al Shaabab terrorist group and he used locally made explosive which he had tied around his waist to blast the parents.
On December 17, 2020, Pope tried to kill his 16-year-old girlfriend in their rented house at Katito town over alleged infidelity.
According to police, the bomber had made an explosive and left it in the house. It exploded and injured the girlfriend. He then fled the area and police have been on his radar.
The attacker, an orphan and Class 5 dropout, is said to have left home more than five years ago for Mombasa, where he joined al Shaabab and came back later.
Nyanza police boss Karanja Muiruri said experts are handling the incident that he termed an act of terrorism.
“We are trying to establish where he has been for the past months. This is serious and we are pursuing it,” he said.
The attack shows terror cells are spreading to non-traditional regions. The most traditional ones have been Nairobi, Coast, Isiolo, Marsabit, and the Northeastern region.
Police authorities say they have set up new bases in Western region, including Kisumu to address the emerging trend.
Terrorism has been a major threat in Kenya for years. Many people have been killed in separate attacks in the country in the past years.
The most notable one was at the Riverside Drive one in 2019, where 21 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack that was followed by gunmen with explosives.
The man has been on the radar of anti-terror police and was working in a quarry in the area.
Authorities said they are concerned with the spread of the terror cell to the areas that were not traditionally under the watch.
Police authorities say two of the terrorists who escaped from Kamiti Maximum Security Prison November 15, 2021 show the shifting nature of violent extremism and terrorism.
New studies show radicalisation has been happening in non-traditional recruitment areas for more than a decade.
According to officials, the new non-traditional regions include parts of the Rift Valley, Western and Central Kenya, with Kisumu, Isiolo, Marsabit, Nakuru, Eldoret, Kakamega and Nyeri towns emerging as some of the hotspots that security agencies have to keep a keen eye on.
Officials say the terror group has now learnt to either remain dormant, become thinner or fragmented into small parts that have since spread around non-traditional zones of radicalisation and recruitment in order to escape scrutiny.
According to Reinvent organization, some individuals took on new roles in business and religious teaching, while well-known operatives, who had been arrested and convicted, became active within Kenya's Prison system, targeting vulnerable young men for radicalisation.
Some trainers have spread the same through a pastoral preaching initiative in schools, mosques and Madrassa, and through the publication of pamphlets expressing support for militant jihad and al Shabaab.
However, most of their associates have been arrested, killed or fled to Somalia.
Among those arrested was Sheikh Guyo Gorsa, who was seized at Madrassa Toba in Marsabit town while preaching.
In March this year, 25-year-old Ambrose Odero Owino snatched a gun from an officer and shot and killed two people before injuring others in a terror-related incident. He was lynched by a mob.
Police reports says he disappeared from Kisumu before he emerged.
In Western Kenya, specifically Kakamega and its environs, studies show there are examples of covert infrastructure of recruitment, fundraising and communication, especially across Busia, Bungoma and Siaya, with operators attempting to take over a number of local mosques in Mumias, where the two Kamiti escapees hail from.
One of the escapees, Joseph Juma Odhiambo, who was arrested on November 22, 2019 alongside Idris Wesonga by Somali National Army soldiers after crossing the border, was linked to Masjid Furqan in Lukoye, Mumias.
Locals said they suspect the operators of violent extremism in the area may have fragmented and gone under to establish covert channels.
Majengo slums in Nyeri became infamous after the DusitD2 attack in January 2019 after it emerged one of the suicide bombers, Ali Salim Gichunge, had visited the area.
Slain controversial Mombasa Muslim cleric Aboud Rogo was also said to have visited Majengo, where he held several meetings with the youth.
Given its proximity to Isiolo and the Northeastern region, Nyeri is believed to be a transit point for terrorists and a recruitment hub for gullible youth lured with the promise of money and jobs outside the country.
There are calls for the government to address unemployment, a leading vulnerability exploited by perpetrators of violent extremism to recruit members, as a strategy to curb it.
Additionally, government agencies are advised to educate the public on the complex nature of violent extremism.
The National Counter-Terrorism Centre has since developed 47 county action plans to prevent and counter violent extremism and trained more than 100,000 Kenyans on their role in security in intelligence-informed radicalisation hotspots and risk areas.