Kenya’s security officers on Tuesday commenced manhunt for gunmen behind the killing of 14 people and injury to 11 others in a dawn attack in the country’s northeastern Mandera County, a close border with Somalia.
Northeastern Regional Coordinator, Mohamud Saleh, said a contingent of security officers drawn from the military, paramilitary and the National Police Reservists are already combing the region to apprehend the gunmen.
“Our officers have already cordoned off the area. We have already launched for a manhunt of the killers who we believe are milling in the crowd,’’ Saleh said.
The County Commissioner, Alex Nkoyo said that they attacked two houses the quarry workers were residing, killed 13 and one mother.
He said that they later placed Improvised Explosive Devices presumably for the soldiers who would come to the scene.
Saleh said that they suspected the attack was planned by radicalised youth in Mandera country and ruled out Al-Shabaab.
“We believe these are radicalised youths from Mandera who are living within community and not Al-Shabaab members from Somalia.
“It looks like a mission that was well planned before being executed,’’ Saleh said.
According to intelligence report, the attack was carried out by about 20 gunmen. There has been no claim of responsibility.
The quarry workers employer rented the house for them near a livestock market, about two kilometers from Mandera town, where the stonemasons return to sleep, as they were prohibited from living near the quarry.
However, Somalia-based Al-Shabaab militants have carried out several similar attacks in Kenya since Kenyan troops joined the effort in Somalia to battle the Al-Qaida-linked fighters in 2011.
In December 2014, the militants killed 36 quarry workers in Mandera, after which, the local government ordered workers to leave the quarries and move to town given the security reasons.
Top regional security chiefs led by the regional boss Saleh were due to visit the place of scene to assess the situation, no arrest has been made as the police were investigating the incident.
Report says the Kenya Red Cross is leading the evacuation process as arrangements are made to airlift those who were seriously injured to Nairobi.