Tana River, KENYA: Police officers on Monday killed three suspected al-Shabab terrorists at Daba in Wayu, Tana River County.
The three suspects are linked to the killing of county government driver whose body was found on Friday morning at Boji.
Speaking to journalists on Monday, Tana River County Commissioner Oningoi Ole Sossio said the three were killed after engaging the police in a gun battle that lasted for more than one hour.
According to the county Commissioner, police officers had been tracking the gunmen since the killing of the driver Mr. Mohamed Funan (deceased) which is suspected to have occurred on Friday mid-night.
The incident occurred few days after reports that the gunmen had been sighted in Wayu areas.
“On Friday, three gunmen killed a county government driver and we suspected that they were terrorists since the language that we had been told they used was not from this locality, it sounded Somali. We deployed our officers with KPR who on Monday came into contact with them at Daba and killed them.” Said Mr. Sossio.
Mr. Sossio affirmed that the three gunmen could be al-shabab fighters as the gunmen were possessing two exercise books written in Swahili, Arabic and English languages.
A part from the two exercise books, the gunmen were caught with two G3 fire arms, 2 magazines, 5 rounds of ammunition, a torch, compass, SD card and a power bank which was suspected to have been taken from the deceased.
In one of the books, was a Kenyan map, routes mentioning some places in the county; places like Wenje-Majengo-Mikinduni- Hola-Bura-Madogo and other places inside and outside the county.
The book also included First Aid teachings like what should be done when one gets a fracture and a list of some other items.
Whilst in the second book was literature which was suspected to have been used for their spiritual guidance written in Swahili, Arabic and English; which according to Mr. Sossio were radicalization materials.
The county security boss added that the suspects used a compass to direct them indicating that they were not aware of the county topography
“These fire arms you’re seeing here have been recovered from them; the probability of them belonging to the al-shabab militants is high because of this literature. They had these two books here; they had a torch, compass. So these people were equipped. This compass means they did not know where they’re going. ” Mr. Sossio added.
As this happened, residents were eagerly waiting for the bodies of the terror suspects at Hola stadium where it was rumored to be the proposed displaying area of their bodies.
The officers however used delayed tactics to avoid chaos, which resulted to the bodies being brought to Hola police station after the residents had dispersed that night, before being taken to Malindi Hospital mortuary.
Meanwhile, a man from Wenje is reported to have gone missing before the killing of the driver by the suspected terrorists.
The man is said to have helped them cross River Tana using his dhow and is suspected to have been killed by the suspected terrorists who did not want to leave any traces behind.
The county commissioner has called upon the residents to continue cooperating with security officers by reporting any matter concerning insecurity.
