by CYRUS OMBATI
Monday December 4, 2023
Police repulsed two separate attacks on their bases in Fafi, Garissa county.
Al Shabaab militants staged attacks on Alinjugur Administration Police camp and Borehole Five Administration Police camp and Jembele simultaneously.
The offensive happened at about 2am on Saturday, police said no injuries were reported on the side of security officers.
Area MP Salah Yakub commended police for their brave action to stop the planned attacks.
He asked authorities to enhance operations in the region to address the terror-related attacks.
“With most roads being impassable in the area due to rains, we urge for more air patrols and delivery of goods to all including security agencies,” he said.
The attack comes days after a similar one at Alinjugur police post left one officer injured.
The attack happened on Tuesday. The officer who sustained a gunshot wound in the leg, was part of a team that had responded by firing back at the militants following the raid at their camp.
Police say the militants fired one rocket-propelled grenade towards the station followed by several gunshots in the Tuesday morning incident.
“The officers engaged and managed to repulse the militants and in the process, one police officer sustained a gunshot in the right leg around the ankle,” police said.
Garissa is one of the areas prone to attacks by the militants that cross over to Kenya from Somalia to commit terror attacks.
Last month, four police officers were killed after their vehicle ran over an improvised explosive device on Dadaab-Fafi road while on routine security patrol.
IEDs have become the most preferred weapons by the militants due to their portability, easy assembling and devastating impact.
The rise in attacks, particularly in the Northeastern, came after the KDF made an incursion into Somalia in 2011.
When he appeared in the Senate two months ago, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki revealed that at least 500 lives have been lost due to terror attacks in the country since the bombing of the American Embassy in Nairobi by Al-Qaeda terrorists in 1998.