Suspected members of the outlawed al Shabaab terror group reportedly abducted five chiefs in Mandera County on Monday.
According to Mandera South Police Commander Julius Njeru, the five administrators were travelling from Wargadud to Elwak Town for official duty.
The chiefs were from the administrative units of Wargadud East, Qurahmudow, and Chachabole and were aboard a vehicle at the time of the incident.
The vehicle ferrying the chiefs to Elwak was hijacked between Bamba Owla and Ires Suki in Mandera South. The chiefs were going for a consultative meeting to plan for an upcoming tour by President William Ruto of the region.
Kenya's security multi-agency teams operating under the Special Operations Group(SOG) quick response unit encountered an IED attack while responding to the incident.
This led to delays in the rescue efforts to help bring the five chiefs home, with the insurgents making away with the administrators.
Mandera County has been a hotbed of al-Shabaab insurgents targeting locals and chiefs, with similar incidents reported in the previous years.
In 2017, suspected gunmen killed a senior chief and abducted two police reservists from the area with a similar incident having been reported in Elwak a week earlier, in the same year.
Kenyans.co.ke reached out to the Ministry of Interior for detailed information on the incident. However, ministry officials stated that a formal statement would be released later in the day.
Investigations are already underway to establish how the chiefs were abducted while on official duty by the insurgents.
In 2022, a former driver attached to the Mandera County government was found guilty of aiding the abduction of two Cuban doctors in Mandera County in 2019.
While making her determination, Milimani Law Courts Magistrate Martha Nanzushi, stated that the prosecution had proved to the court that Issack Robow helped the militants in executing the abduction.
“After evaluating the evidence on record, I find the prosecution has proved the charges against the accused person herein and l convict him accordingly under section 215 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC),” Nanzushi ruled.
