• According to area county commissioner Loyford Kibaara, three more lifeless bodies were found a few kilometers from where the incident happened.
• Kibaara who was accompanied by local political leaders led by area governor Mohamed Abdi said that six survived the bus attack.
Image: /THE STAR
The number of those killed in the Friday evening terror attack in a Mandera bound bus by Al Shabaab militants has risen from eight to eleven.
The militants who are estimated to be 7 in number, stopped Medina bus at 5 pm, 20 Kms from Kotulo town in Tarbaj constituency, Wajir, went on to separate the passengers in two groups (locals and non locals) then ordered them to lie down before proceeding to shoot the non locals at close range.
According to area county commissioner Loyford Kibaara, three more lifeless bodies were found a few kilometers from where the incident happened.
The passengers died from excessive bleeding.
Speaking to the press outside the Wajir county referral hospital mortuary after viewing the bodies of the 11, Kibaara who was accompanied by local political leaders led by area governor Mohamed Abdi said that six survived the bus attack.
“I can confirm that all the 56 passengers in the bus including those that were missing have been accounted for. The survivors are all responding well to treatment. We thank God they are all in stable condition and being attended to by a team of doctors," Kibaara said.
It has also emerged that out of the 11, 8 were police officer returning to their work station in Rhamu, Mandera county while two were teachers and a medical doctor.
“It is very unfortunate that we are once again gathered here to morn the death of innocent Kenyans killed in the hands of these terrorists. Their mission is to divide our communities here between Muslims and the Christians.
As a government we will not tolerate that. We will follow them relentlessly until we eliminate them,” he said.
Kibaara further disclosed that the driver and the conductor of the bus had already been arrested to assist in investigation.
“The survivors have told us that there was a guy who kept on moving from one seat to another and was in constant communication with the conductor and the driver. All I can assure everybody is that we are on top of things. Those involved can run but they cannot hide, we will catch up with them,” he said.
Area governor Mohamed Abdi, while condoling with the families of those who lost their loved ones, said that going forward, the local leadership will create drastic actions and engage the local communities of areas prone to Al Shabaab attacks with a view of ‘addressing the matter and come up with solution once and for all’.
"As leaders we are tired of condemning every other day an incident of this kind happens. This time round we are going back to the drawing board. We cannot allow such malpractices to continue on our oil. Let's all cooperate to stem out this menace that has really been a thorn in our flesh,” he said.
The bodies of the 11 have since been flown to Nairobi where a postmortem will be conducted on their bodies before their next of keen are informed.
Other leaders present included Eldas MP Aden Keynan, Rashid Kasim (Wajir East),Ahmed Bashane (Tarbaj), Ahmed Kolosh (Wajir South) and former Governor Ahmed Abdullahi.