Four quarry miners were on Thursday evening killed by suspected al Shabab militants in a quarry in Shimbir Fatuma, Mandera South subcounty.
The incident took place 65 kilometres from the insecure Kenya-Somalia border, where miners are said to have been staying.
Two others were also injured in the attack.
The quarry workers had earlier defied government orders to vacate the area over insecurity with the government now blaming the workers for not heeding their calls to evacuate.
Area Governor Ali Roba, while condemning the incident on Friday, said it was unfortunate to see the lives of innocent Kenyans being lost, despite intelligence reports being available for security personnel to act on.
“It extremely sad because actionable intelligence was there. It had in fact been shared a week earlier about al shabaab terror cells that were moving. But unfortunately no security response has taken place," he said.
The Governor was speaking on a the sidelines of a function he was attending in Garissa town. Roba blamed the security personnel for doing little to stop the attack.
“The intelligence was very clear, the specific number of the militants, where they were and at what time. But we have more than 2,000 security officers in Mandera of various types and nothing happens and we end up loosing lives,” Roba said.
He said it was unfortunate that the attackers were targeting non locals in Kenya while in Somalia they kill indiscriminately.
“It is very sad because in Somalia they kill Somalis who are Muslims like them but in Kenya they we are targeting non locals. The hypocrisy of the highest level, this is a problem that we must acknowledge and tackle it head on because it is affecting the fabric of our society,” the Governor said.
The National Police Service on Friday through a tweet said they were able to rescue 156 quarry workers in Mandera. The Thursday evening rescue mission was a combined effort of a multi agency team comprised of the National Police Service and the Kenya Defence Forces.
The workers were in quarries situated at Fincharo and Shimbir Fatuma in Elwak Subcounty, Mandera County.
