Police Officer Killed in Al Shabaab Attack

Hassan Huka

27 July 2011

A policeman was on Wednesday killed in Mandera Town and three others injured when suspected al Shabaab insurgents attacked them with an explosive device on the Kenya-Somalia border.

The injured officers were taken to Mandera District Hospital, North Eastern deputy police boss Philip Ndolo told the Nation.

Speaking on phone from Garissa Town, Mr Ndolo said the device could have been in the sand, near an abandoned building on the border.

He said the explosive, which they suspect was a landmine, was detonated using a mobile phone by the insurgents.

“They were approaching a building on the narrow borderline separating the two countries when an explosive went off, killing one officer on the spot and slightly injuring three others.

“We have intensified investigations and tightened border patrols,” he said.

The officers were patrolling the porous border separating Mandera and Somalia’s battle-ravaged Bulahawa towns when the device went off at 10am.

The explosion occurred about 1.5km from Mandera Police Station.

The terror group was in March flushed out of the border town, and Bulahawa has since fallen under the control of Somalia’s transitional government.

Mr Ndolo said the attack was targeted at policemen, who have been deployed in the area to patrol the volatile region to prevent the insurgents from escaping into Kenya as strikes against the al Qaeda-affiliated terror group intensify inside Somalia.

Mr Ndolo said police were following clues, which could link some Kenyans to the activities of the insurgents in the area.

“We have started investigations and we cannot rule out the involvement of some Kenyan sympathisers working with the rebels to advance their claims,” he said.

Local leaders, who talked to the Nation, said the attack on Kenyan security personnel was a pointer to the rebels’ resolve to prevent aid agencies from entering their country.

Mr Ndolo said the police had involved residents in beefing up security.

“We are urging the locals to prevent their youths from being recruited into the al Shabaab, and we pray they expose the sympathisers,” he said.

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