One week after the attack on the Kenya Defence Forces camp in Kulbiyow,
Somalia, high casualties have been widely reported, but the government yesterday refused to comment.
The official death toll is nine, though al Shabaab said at least 57 were killed and persistent news reports say 50, 60 or more. A tally done by the Star has so far confirmed 17 soldiers dead and one missing. The tally is based on soldiers already buried and also where family members have already been informed of the death of their loved ones and are presently preparing for burial.
A military source has confided to the Star, however, that the death toll is higher than officially acknowledged. He said a revised figure would be released in due time after a battle damage assessment is completed.
That is not expected soon and the toll might not be known until KDF Day in October. Last Friday, the day of the attack, KDF initially said it had lost nine soldiers, including two officers and seven servicemen.
It said 70 al Shabaab fighters were killed as they attempted to overrun the camp at dawn. KDF says it never talks about those missing in action until all are accounted for.
A battle damage assessment team was dispatched to Kulbiyow on the day of the attack, while senior military officers, including the Amisom and Sector II commanders, visited the attacked camp to raise the soldiers’ morale.
Meanwhile, families of the fallen soldiers continue to mourn, even as Kenyans seek answers on the second deadliest attack on its military, since embarking on Operation Linda Nchi in 2011.
tactic of silence
KDF immediately contacted families of the fallen soldiers and released some bodies for burial as soon as they landed in Nairobi. Some have already been buried as the military employs the same tactics used after the El Adde attack in January 2016 – silence. The public might never know the exact number of soldiers and officers killed in the dawn attack, those missing or captured by the militants.
Those who have already been buried include Sergeant Kassim Roba, who was buried in Madogo, Tana River; sergeant Abdalla Aziz; 23-year-old Mohammed Kanchoro and private Ido Kuno Ido ( 29 ), both from Isiolo. Amani Yusuf Mwinga was buried on Sunday at Senti Kumi cemetery in Mombasa.
Other soldiers who were killed in the attack are Francis Kombo, Gideon Nyabidi, Victor Ilavonga, Juma Bakari Mwanguya and Kennedy George Bakari. The families of private Mohammed Kalume from Utange in Mombasa, Rajab Kazungu Baya from Kilifi and Corporal Moses Mwakio, 40, from Mombasa are also mourning.
Also killed in the attack are George Ndirangu, corporal Benson Ntheketha from Kangundo in Machakos county, Josiah Kamau and Captain Silas Ekidor. The family of 47-year-old Bernard Kiboyi from Mt Elgon said it had been contacted by KDF, but is yet to receive his body.
In Kilifi, several families are mourning their sons, including a man and his uncle. Kennedy and Juma hailed from Jaribuni in Ganze constituency. Juma is Kennedy’s uncle. The two joined KDF in 2008. Both had been to Somalia and came back, according to the family.
The last time they visited home was in December during the burial of a family member.
Juma is survived by a widow and five children, while Kennedy leaves behind a wife and two children. Juma is the firstborn in a family of eight, while Kennedy is the ninth-born in a family of 11.
Still in Kilifi, Kaloleni constituency, relatives are mourning Baya. The 27-year-old joined KDF in 2012. “He only married his wife on December 3 and they were yet to have a child,” distraught brother Timothy Baya told the Star.
brother distraught
In Mazeras, Rabai, Francis Kombo’s family plans to bury him on February 11.
The family of Yusuf, who was laid to rest in Likoni on Sunday, said he leaves behind a wife and a daughter who turns three on February 28.
The last-born in a family of six had been deployed back to Somalia less than a month after coming back to Kenya, where he served at the camp in 2015. Roba’s family said he joined KDF in 1990.
He leaves behind five children and a widow, Seretha Wato. Nyabidi comes from Kesogon village in Kwanza, Trans Nzoia and he leaves behind a widow, Loyce and a three-month-old son.
The attack on Kulibiyow, on the Kenya-Somalia border, was similar to the one carried out by al Shabaab militants at El Adde on the morning of January 15, 2016.
In El Adde, the troops were from the 9th Rifle Battalion in Eldoret. But unlike the El Adde attack, the troops in Kulbiyow retook the camp after a few hours.