Two border patrol officers attached to the Administration Police (AP) have been killed after the vehicle they were travelling in was blown up by an Improvised Explosive Device in Kulan, near Daadab.
Preliminary reports indicate the IED went off after the patrol vehicle the officers were travelling in ran over the explosive, setting it off.
At least five other officers, who were on board the vehicle, were left with critical injuries.
Although unconfirmed, local authorities suspect the IED was deliberately placed on the patrol trail by the Al-Shabaab militia.
At the time of publication of this article, no militant group had claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Dadaab area in Garissa County has been prone to attacks in recent months, with assailants preferring the use of IEDs to ambush Kenyan police officers.
One of the more recent incidents occurred in May 2025, when three police officers survived a similar attack in a 6am incident.
At the time, the police vehicle, a Land Cruiser, suffered significant damage on the front, with the officers surviving mainly because the bomb detonated early.
In October, Kenya’s elite Special Operations Group (SOG) foiled another attack after intercepting eight suspected militia who were setting up IEDs in the Eelmerer-Yumbia area in Garissa county.
According to security reports, the militants were in the process of assembling the explosives when the unit received intelligence from members of the local community, prompting an immediate response.
Part of the reason militia prefer IEDs is that they are an asymmetric warfare tool, meaning that since they cannot match state armies in firepower, they level the field by striking high-value targets and disrupting logistics.
IEDs are also difficult to spot in rough terrain and can likely disrupt local authorities' tactics.
Garissa County recently came into focus on the issue of terror attacks after a report highlighted how funding shortfalls and programme cuts increased the odds of terrorists thriving within refugee camps and their environs.
