Eight Kenyan police officials were killed in the eastern part of the country on Sunday after their vehicle hit an improvised explosive device planted by Somalia’s al-Shabaab militant group, police said.
Al-Shabaab is fighting to topple Somalia’s government, establish their own rule based on their strict interpretation of Islamic law and drive out of the country peacekeepers deployed by the African Union.
The suspected Al-Shabaab militants who killed eight police in Tarbaj, Wajir County, made away with the officers’ eight rifles and more than 540 bullets, a police report shows.The Nation has established that the rifles and magazines that the five administration police officers and three national police reservists were armed with had at least 60 rounds each
The attackers took away the slain officers’ six AK47 and two G3 rifles, according to the report sent to Vigilance House, the police headquarters in Nairobi.Three of the missing weapons had 90 bullets each while four had 60.In an exclusive interview with the Nation, a local administrator, who requested anonymity because he is not authorised to give media reports, said they could not find any rifle on arrival at the scene.
“We can’t tell for sure if they were taken by the militants or not,” he said, suggesting that locals might have as well taken the weapons.The officers died on Sunday when their Toyota Landcruiser hit an improvised explosive device in Tarbaj as they patrolled on Kotulo–Bojigaras road.