Gunmen suspected to be Al-Shabaab terrorists launched an attack in Lamu on Saturday, March 21.
The attempted attack targetted a construction site guarded by Kenya Defence Forces.
As per a report by The Standard on Saturday, March 21, the assailants launched their attack on construction workers posted on a road project along the Lamu-Garsen Road.
The attackers allegedly struck at around 9.00 a.m. which resulted in a heated exchange with the KDF who ultimately repulsed them.
One of the workers at the site provided information that the gunmen had used the same route two years prior when they attacked former Principal Secretary Mariam El Maway.
Lamu Police Commander Moses Muriithi explained that there were no casualties resulting from the shootout.
"There was an attempted attack at H-Young construction site Saturday morning at Milihoi. Our soldiers who were on duty managed to contain the attackers," Muriithi confirmed.
He, however, directed that all passenger buses be accompanied by police escort moving forward to provide an extra layer of safety in light of the recent attack.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the group is currently led by Ahmed Umar, also known as Abu Ubaidah who was installed in 2014 after his predecessor, Ahmed Abdi Godane was killed by a U.S. drone strike.
One of the key ways the group is funded is through racketeering, one of the most profitable being the smuggling of contraband sugar across the border into Kenya.
The Al-Shabaab struck outside of Somalia for the first time in 2010 leading to Kenya's entry into Somalia to crush the terrorist group and the subsequent formation of the peacekeeping forces known as AMISOM in 2007.
The group has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks in the country, most notably, the 2015 attack in Garissa that led to the death of 148 people.
It still stands as the deadliest attack in the country since the 1998 bombing of the US Embassy in Nairobi in which more than 200 people died.
