Coming to terms with the ‘White Widow’

Her name has been floated since the Westgate attack. Some claim that she might have been involved, others say she was a financier, while others just mention her name not knowing the role she played or even whether she was involved.

Samantha Lewthwaite is her name. She is also known as Sherafiya Lewthwaite or the “White Widow”.

And why the White Widow? Some may ask.

Samantha was married to Germaine Lindsay, a 7/7 suicide bomber who bombed a train in London killing 26 civilians.

Samantha, who converted to Islam at the age of 17, is said to have condemned her husband’s move, claiming that he was mislead by a few  extremists since he was a new convert.

And the White widow is not new to controversy. She is reported to have sold a story to the Sun for $30,000, a story claiming that she did not know her husband was involved in such acts of terror.

Forensic investigators into the incidence are said to have implicated her to the bombings saying she planned with the attackers’ way before the bombings.

Lewthwaite is also said to have been very serious about Islam after she converted.

She was so serious that she started isolating herself from others students and donning full length Islamic attire. She became an introvert, BBC reports.

Born in Banbridge, County Down to a former British soldier, Samantha was raised as a disciplined child, and her parents’ marriage was in constant problems, she is said to have been affected by that, thus seeking solace from their Muslim neighbors where she thought she could find peace, before converting to Islam.

Their parents finally separated and Samantha moved to Aylesbury,Buckinghamshire.

She met Lindsay in an Islam internet chat room and they consecrated their marriage months later in an elaborate Muslim wedding.

Lewthwaite is now believed to be a fugitive running from justice in Kenya, where she is accused to have been behind last year’s Mombasa bombing, where hundreds were attacked were watching the Euro 2012 tournament in a bar.

Media and security reports have linked Miss Lewthwaite to the September 21 attack of Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi.

She is 28.