A 22-year-old man was allegedly given a message by Al Shabaab Militia in Boni Forest to deliver to the Kenya Defence Forces after running into them while harvesting honey.
Musa Genje, a resident of Pandanguo Village in Lamu County, was told to inform the soldiers that the militants existed and that they (KDF) should be ready to face them.
“The men gave me a strong message to deliver to the Kenya Defence Forces that the militants exist and that the KDF should be ready to face them,” he said.
Mr Genje reportedly said he found himself in front of six armed men who were in masks and military attire. He claimed that he was harassed and ordered to lie down.
“I had left my home in Pandanguo Village to go into the forest to harvest honey. About two kilometres from the village, I spotted 6 men who were heavily armed. They ordered me to lie down. After a few minutes they commanded me to stand and go back to where I was coming from without looking back,” Genge told the the Nation on phone.
A local administrator in the area confirmed the incident and said tension was high in Pandanguo and Jima villages, with some residents opting to sleep in bushes for fear of being attacked.
“They now view their homesteads as uninhabitable zones especially after receiving the news of presence of the suspicious armed men in the area…They are scared that if they decide to sleep in their houses, the terrorists might find them and kill them,” said the administrator who prefered to stay anonymous.
The administrator called for enhanced security patrols in the area, which is believed to be a hide out for Al shabaab.
This comes months after the Government launched a major security operation - Operation Linda Boni - aimed at flushing out Al-Shabaab militants hiding in the extensive Boni forest.
In September, troops from the General Service Unit (GSU) and the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) were deployed to mount ground and aerial operations.
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