Terror attacks claimed 49 lives in 2018 -report

Al Shabaab attacks on Kenyans has decreased significantly, a crime report has found.

The 2018 report released by National Police Service on Tuesday indicated that there were 44 recorded cases of terror attacks in 2018 as compared to 80 in 2017.

As a result of these incidents, 49 people were killed and 41 injured. In the 2018 report, 38 suspects were arrested.

Out of those killed 23 were police officers, 16 were civilians and eight were al shaabab militants.

This is a decrease from 2017 where 82 people were killed and a total of 118 persons Injured.

The attacks which mostly targeted security personnel led to the injury of 33 police officers and eight civilians.

According to the report, Mandera County was the leading county in the attacks.

It recorded 19 cases which account for 40 per cent of the total incidents.

It was followed by Garissa which recorded 11 cases (23%), Wajir recorded seven cases (15%), Lamu recorded 5 cases (10%) and Isiolo recorded 2 cases (4%).

Al Shabaab grew out of a political movement that used Islamic courts to impose order on war-ravaged Somalia.

The militants pledged loyalty to al Qaeda four years later, as the insurgency battled African Union peacekeepers in Somalia.

Kenya sent troops there in 2011 after al Shabaab started recruiting and kidnapping on Kenyan soil.

Two years later, the insurgents massacred 67 people at Nairobi's Westgate mall.

As al Shabaab morphed from a nationalist insurgency into an al Qaeda franchise, it increased its messaging to other nationalities.