Man,50, shot dead inside Kutulo AP Camp in Wajir

Mr Issa Ahmed Abdi, Wargadud Ward MCA, who confirmed the incident. PHOTO | BRUHAN MAKONG | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Witnesses told the Nation that 50-year-old Hassan Abdi Muhumed was felled after he was arrested together with dozens of other men in Kutulo town on Thursday morning.

  • The Nation could not immediately establish the reasons behind the shooting but sources indicated that fire was opened after some of the men protested their arrest and detention.

  • The two MCAs claimed that Mr Muhumed’s body was still lying in the camp and the military had threatened to shoot anyone who would attempt to go near it.

Tension is running high in Kutulo town, Wajir, after a man was shot dead inside Kutulo AP Camp in the ongoing military operation against suspected Al-Shabaab members.

Witnesses told the Nation that 50-year-old Hassan Abdi Muhumed was felled after he was arrested together with dozens of other men in Kutulo town on Thursday morning.

IED ATTACK

The Nation could not immediately establish the reasons behind the shooting but sources indicated that fire was opened after some of the men protested their arrest and detention.

The operation comes days after Al-Shabaab killed eight police officers in an IED attack on Sunday.

Mr  Issa Ahmed Abdi, the Wargadud Ward rep, said Mr Muhumed was a security guard at a local Kenya Power electricity station.

He added that the soldiers rounded up “all the men” from Kutulo town and were being held at the AP camp.

“An innocent man who was a security guard at the KPLC plant in the area has been shot dead by the military,” he said.

Mr Ahmed said the military had resorted to torturing and killing innocent civilians even after volunteering information on Al-Shabaab.

“People have been giving information in regards to the terrorists since they were here and it is their right to be protected by the same government but it’s quite saddening that the people meant to protect are now killing,” he said.

WHY KDF?

“They are being killed by the terrorists and on the other side being sacrificed by the government, where should they run to?”

He appealed to President Kenyatta and Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i to intervene in the matter.

He wants Dr Matiangi to set up a task force to look into the matter, adding that the military is meant for external aggressions and their involvement in the operation needs to be explained.

He claimed terrorism is being politicised since it appears like the whole Somali community has now been profiled as the terrorists.

“The community has been volunteering information to the security forces, including me as their MCA, and it is very unfortunate that innocent people, including grand mothers and fathers and people who can’t move, are now being attacked,” he said.

The militants, he said, fled to the bushes after the attack and the military should follow them to their hideouts and spare the locals.

Mr Ahmed Ismail Dugow, MCA Khorof Kharar Ward, regretted the shooting and questioned who ordered it.

“I wonder how this war is supposed to be won when the military keeps on intimidating the people who are supposed to share the information with them,” he said.

BODY

Mr Musa Dimbil, a resident, expressed his worry that more innocent people may end up being killed in the operation.

He said they had given the names of terror suspects to the authorities and wondered what else the community should have done.

Schools, dispensaries and businesses, he said, had been closed in Kutulo town, making life unbearable.

The two MCAs claimed that Mr Muhumed’s body was still lying in the camp and the military had threatened to shoot anyone who would attempt to go near it.

Al-Shabaab, the Somalia-based terrorist group, claimed responsibility for the attack in Bojigaras, claiming, in its usual propaganda, it killed 15 security officers and injured 23 others.

SITE Intelligence Group, an American firm that tracks online activity of white supremacists and jihadist organisations, said Al-Shabaab released a video of multiple attacks in Kenya on Monday for propaganda purposes to “honour slain fighters who include an unidentified Briton killed fighting alongside them.”

After the police Land Cruiser hit the IED on Sunday, the attackers who were hiding nearby ambushed the security officers.

PATROL

Among those who died in the fierce firefight that ensued were five Administration Police (AP) officers and three National Police Service reservists.

According to police reports, the slain officers who were based in Kutulo AP camp were on a routine patrol before their vehicle was blown up on Kutulo-Bojigaras road around 2.30 pm.

The militants are reported to have made way with eight assault rifles and hundreds of bullets belonging to the slain officers before fleeing towards the Somalia border.

Apart from the Sunday attack, the militant group has been blamed for various attacks in the Northeastern region, including the recent attack in Liboi earlier this month that left five officers dead.

Al-Shabaab fighters have also been blamed for the February attack at Qarsa that left three people dead, including two teachers.

The National Police had earlier issued an alert on a possible attack in Wajir, Garissa and Mandera County during the just-ended Ramadhan period.

Several leaders from the Northeastern have condemned the attack as they appealed for the change in tact in the fight against terror.