On Saturday, Police revealed that they arrested an Al Shabaab member in relation to an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) that hit a police land cruiser on June 15, 2019.
Abdirashid Abdi Adan was arrested on July 2, 2019, and is currently in police custody being processed to face justice.
According to a police report posted on their Facebook page, initial investigations reveal that Abdirashid is a Marehan clansman who fraudulently obtained Kenyan identification documents indicating that he is a Degodia.
“After his arrest, Al Shabaab engaged in a frantic activity to secure his release and frustrate investigations, including relocating his family from the border with Wajir further into Somalia,” Charles Wahong’o, the director of corporate communications revealed.
The police director revealed that sustained operations have seen many of the militia pushed into the Somali side of the border.
The group thus resorted to targeting specific clans within the border regions in a bid to intimidate and gain support.
They are notorious for laying explosives within Somalia to target Kenyan businessmen who operate across the border.
On July 9, 2019, they laid an explosive in Wajir county targeting a Degodia businessman, but it exploded killing five civilians traveling in a truck.
The same day, another IED killed three civilians on their way to refill water.
Following the IED attack on police in Wajir, blogger Robert Alai and prison warder Patrick Safari were arrested for sharing the deadly pictures online.
Blogger Alai was later released on a cash bail of Ksh 300,000 or a bond of Ksh 500,000.
