Police on Tuesday morning repelled an al Shabaab night raid on a Chinese workers’ residence in Elwak, Mandera County.
The team managed to secure all 10 Chinese present, as vehicles and property were damaged in the attack.
The attackers escaped after a long battle with security teams that were present.
The attack occurred at about 1:00 am, when heavily armed militants forcefully gained entry into the compound, located roughly one kilometre from Elwak Police Station, triggering a prolonged exchange of gunfire with officers guarding the residence.
“The officers on duty gallantly held their ground and successfully repulsed the attack,” police said in a statement, adding that the assailants later fled the scene.
According to police, the militia demolished the main gate and damaged the perimeter barrier during the assault.
The attackers, armed with both crude and sophisticated weapons, are believed to have been ferried into Elwak town using four Toyota Probox vehicles that accessed the area from Buraache along border cutline routes near the Kenya–Somalia border.
“They positioned themselves opposite the main gate before opening fire,” police said.
Officers from the Border Patrol Unit (BPU) based in Elwak were deployed to reinforce the team on the ground, a move that helped secure all the Chinese nationals, who are involved in road construction projects in the area and are housed under armed police protection.
Police said the attackers damaged a police vehicle, five Toyota Hilux double-cab vehicles, a grader and a water bowser belonging to the Chinese construction company.
The Mandera incident came as bomb disposal experts on Tuesday defused a suspected improvised explosive device (IED) found under a bridge in Nyatike, Migori County, in a separate security scare.
“The device was connected to a live wire and was safely disabled by our bomb experts,” police said.
Seven pieces of gel explosives were recovered from the scene during an operation carried out by multi-agency security teams, who cordoned off the area for several hours to allow the exercise to proceed safely.
No injuries were reported in either incident, and police said investigations were ongoing to establish the motive behind the attempted attack in Mandera and the placement of the explosive device in Migori.
