•The militants entered a Simba Coach at Nyongoro Area, Witu Division and ordered militants to recite Quran before shooting dead the conductor.
•Three people were killed when militants attacked a passenger bus in the same area on august 2017.
Image: COURTESY
Suspected al Shabaab militants killed three passengers and a conductor after attacking a bus convoy in Lamu West on Thursday.
The militants entered a Simba Coach in Nyongoro, Witu division and ordered passengers to recite the Koran before shooting dead the conductor.
Another group sprayed a Mombasa Raha bus with bullets killing three passengers at close range.
Reports indicate the gunmen flagged down the bus and started firing when the driver defied orders to stop past Gamba area.
“One man was injured in the arm and another in the head. They have been rushed to Garsen and Witu Dispensary,” reads a police report. Other reports indicate a TSS bus was also attacked.
“I can confirm that three people have died after suspected militants fired at their bus. Three other people are seriously injured,” Lamu county commissioner Irungu Macharia said.
There were no immediate arrests as the gunmen disappeared into nearby Boni Forest.
Intelligence reports say Harakat Shabaab Mujahideen, an al Qaeda branch in Somalia, carried out the attack.
In August 2017, three people were killed when militants attacked a passenger bus in the same area.
On December 10, eight police officers from the Anti-Stock Theft Unit and three civilians were killed after the militants separated non-locals from the 56 passengers in the Mandera-bound Medina Bus.
Intelligence reports had warned of an attack in Nairobi and Mombasa during the festive season.
All vehicles travelling on the road have to move in one convoy and must be accompanied by armed police escort.
The vehicles are required to undergo numerous security checks at various roadblocks erected on the road. All passengers alight with their luggage for the checks.
A Linda Boni Operation launched by the government in 2015 is currently underway in Boni Forest and neighboring areas.
The objective is to flush out al Shabaab militants believed to be holed up in the forest. The operation also stretches to other counties on the Kenya-Somalia border, including Garissa and Tana River.
Similar attacks on bus plying the route forced the government to impose a night travel ban on the road since 2014.
In July, 2014, seven people among them four police officers and three civilians were killed at Nyongoro area when al Shabaab militants attacked and sprayed a Tahmeed bus heading to Lamu from Mombasa with bullets after the driver refused to stop.
In January, 2018, militants attacked two police Land Cruisers that were escorting buses to Mombasa from Lamu.
A woman was killed in the attack and five officers injured.
The militants also set ablaze the two Land Cruisers during the attack.The two police vehicles were burnt to ashes during the attack.