When gunmen blasted their way into dusitD2 hotel and office complex in Nairobi on January 15, sending workers fleeing for their lives as others cowered under their desks from an attack , six employees from a top ICT firm sacrificed their lives trying to save colleagues in the Riverside terrorist attack in Nairobi.
However , none of the six working at Cellulant company made it out alive to narrate the horror witnessed at the scene.
Ashford Kuria (Head of Product Development), Denis Mwaniki (Head of Information Security), Jeremiah Mbaria (Head of Hub), John Ndiritu (Quality Assurance Tester), Kelvin Gitonga (Hub Engineer) and Wilfred Kareithi (Implementation Engineer, Global Delivery Team) died during the attack.
The company which is yet to come to terms following the death of six employees in hotel complex terror attack in Nairobi says a memorial service will be held on Tuesday at CITAM, Valley Road Church in Nairobi.
The inspector General of police Joseph Boinnet said 21 people lost their lives in the incident. Those killed included one policeman who had been wounded.
Sixteen of the dead, including the policeman, were Kenyan, Boinnet said, as well as a British man, an American man, and three people of African origin whose nationality was uncertain.
With 11 branches across Africa, Cellulant was founded in Nigeria and Kenya in 2004 and offers digital payments platforms and mobile banking services aimed at those who do not have a bank account.
Last year, a private investment firm TPG paid Sh4.8 billion to acquire an unspecified stake in Cellulant.
Ken Njoroge, Cellulant co-founder and chief executive said the new investment would enable the company to expand into new markets and to also invest in its existing operations.
Police have appealed to the public to help them arrest six men believed to be part of a network that participated in the last Tuesday’s dusitD2 terror attack.
Police made public photos of Didu Mohamed Fugicha alias Dingdong alias Duktur, Hussein Adan Hussein alias Etto, Gaddafi aka Munene, Abdi Ali Kanchora, Boru Abdi Bidu and Ramadhan Wario Bonaya alias Rasho.
The wanted men are believed to be members of a cell that originated in Isiolo and travelled to Somalia to join Al Shabaab between May and June 2017, before returning to Kenya with the sole intent of harming citizens.
Two other wanted men are yet to be identified.
Last Tuesday’s attack has now forced security agencies to focus on Isiolo County, which has emerged as a preferred place for radicalism and facilitation of Shabaab activities.
Just leave a message to their families!