A second police officer has died following an attack by suspected al Shabaab terrorists near the Kenya-Somalia border in Mandera.
The officer succumbed to injuries he sustained after the gang fired a rocket propelled grenade targeting a Landcruiser pickup with elite officers in Mandera county.
The incident happened on the Elele-Takaba road in Mandera on Friday as a contingent of security officers from the Elele-based Quick Response Unit were on patrol.
The attackers fired rocket-propelled grenades at the officers' vehicle killing one officer and injuring five others.
Mandera County Commissioner Amos Mariba said combined security forces were combing the area in search of the attackers.
"It is unfortunate that we lost two officers but our response teams are on the ground," he said.
The team had been patrolling the area following intelligence reports of the militants being sighted when they came under attack. The attackers escaped soon after the incident.
Officials say sightings of al Shabaab militants in Mandera have increased following the recent rains.
The dead and injured were airlifted to Nairobi.
This came as Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki flew to Garissa for a joint security briefing with North Eastern regional security and intelligence officers.
The aim of the meeting was to fight al Shabaab amid plans to open the Kenya-Somalia border, officials said.
The CS announced that after more than eight years of suspension, operations at the Eastern regional immigration offices in Garissa will resume on July 1, 2023.
Meanwhile, there are fears among non-locals in a village in Mandera after gunmen believed to be al Shabaab terrorists killed one of the reservists guarding them.
Mohamud Mohammed Abdulahi was ambushed and killed in his house about 500 meters from a place he and two others had been taking care of non-local teachers at Guticha Primary School.
He was shot on May 29 at about 3 am after he went to his house within Ashabito division.
Three reservists were guarding non-local teachers at the school following continued fears and reports terror group al Shabaab is targeting them for an attack.
This has sparked fears the gang could be planning to attack the non-local teachers who are sustaining the education system in the area.
Non-local teachers have in the past been targeted and killed by the terrorists to scare them from the area.
This prompted owners of private schools to hire vigilante groups and police reservists to guard them.
Witnesses said they saw about 15 men escape the scene soon after the shooting of the official. Police arrived at the scene moments later and processed it before allowing the family to bury the body.
This is the latest incident to happen in the area amid fears the terrorists are trying to set up a base there for planned attacks.
On May 1, six police officers were injured after their vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device in Rhamu area, Mandera county.
The officers were driving in an official vehicle headed for Mandera town when they ran over a set bomb. Another team was attacked in the same area days later but managed to escape unhurt.
On May 22, multi-agency teams stopped a major planned terrorist attack and recovered an arsenal of weapons in an operation in Alango, Garrissa county.
Police said the team recovered six AK47 rifles, two RPGs, PKM, two grenades and other items.
The team also found warheads, 20 magazines and a belt of 200 rounds, a cell phone and memory card. This was after the team raided an al Shabaab camp in Alango in Garissa, which militants planned to use to launch attacks in the County.
Locals have always been urged to work with security agencies to tame the trend.
This is because such attacks cannot happen without the knowledge of the locals.
The border region has borne the brunt of repeated attacks from the militants who are at times aided by locals. Somalia has not had a stable government after the fall of Siad Barre in 1991.
The area is near the Somalia border and the militants usually cross at will and stage attacks before escaping back.
Al Shabaab terrorists have been attacking places in the region, especially in Mandera and Garissa counties after breaching security zones, which left dozens of civilians and security officials dead and wounded.
The terrorists have been planting explosives on the routes used by the security agencies. Kenyan troops are in Somalia to pursue and suppress the activities of the terror group.
