adminLosku said the militants escaped with a G3 rifle of the injured officer. “It is not clear who are behind the killings and their motive but we are investigating,” he told Xinhua by telephone yesterday.
“We are however appealing to members of the public to cooperate with security agencies in a bid to try and apprehend the culprits who are behind this heinous act and also get back the gun that they escaped with,” Losku said.
Kenya’s northern region particularly Garissa County has of late witnessed a spate of grenade and gun attack on innocent Kenyans, refugees and the police over the past two weeks which are seen as retaliatory attacks from the embattled Al-Shabaab militias in Somalia since the capture of the port city of Kismayo.
More than 25 security officers and scores of civilians have been killed, many maimed and property worth millions was destroyed in Mandera, Wajir, Garissa, Nairobi and Mombasa since the Kenyan soldiers entered Somalia in bid to forestall dangers from threats of Al-Qaeda linked Somali Islamist Group, Al-Shabaab.
Loske said one of the officers died on the spot while the other was rushed to hospital, sparking tension in the restive region after police officers started shooting in the air in anger after the attack. No arrest has been made so far.
According to the injured officer, Police Constable Eric Mutuku who survived the attack with gun wounds, the militants who numbered four ambushed them before opening fire at them.
“We had just stopped at the kiosk to have a cup of coffee before proceeding with the patrol in town but no sooner had we started drinking it when four armed men approached us. One of them who had a pistol shot me twice in the shoulder.
I then fell down unconsciously, then proceeded to shoot at my colleague twice in the head killing him instantly and then took away my G3 rifle,” Mutuku told Xinhua in Garissa hospital.
According to Mutuku, the attackers who were young in age were dressed in normal attire and one in white robes. Bessy Muthoni, the owner of the kiosk where the officers were taking coffee said that the attackers came in a white taxi and ordered her to lie down before drawing the rifle and started shooting the officers.
“I was busy arranging sodas in my fridge after serving the two officers when I had a gun shot. I then turned back to see what was happening only to see the two officers lying down in a pool of blood, one of the militants then ordered me to lie down as they fled in a waiting vehicle,” visibly shaken Muthoni told Xinhua.
The incident is in a series of attacks aimed at security officers. Two weeks ago a grenade was lobbed in an Administration Police camp seriously injuring one officer in Garissa town.
A month ago two officers who were on patrol were shot dead by suspected AlShabaab militants.
Both Garissa and Mandera districts in northern region have been the site of increasing grenade and gun attacks targeting both the Kenyan security forces and civilians since October 2011, when Kenyan military entered Somalia in pursuit of the militant Somali armed group, Al-Shabaab.
The Kenyan government has publicly attributed the attacks to Al Shabaab, which declared last year that it had joined the al Qaida network and also the insurgents sympathisers residing in the East African nation.
The security forces have repeatedly accused residents in the restive region of either harboring members of Al-Shabaab or participating in the attacks, and have repeatedly carried out operations against local residents.
Online Reporter