Hunt down terrorists planting explosives
What you need to know:
- The terrorists have established cells made up mainly of their Kenyan allies.
- The terrorists are also notorious for sabotaging mobile phone masts to cut off communication.
Yesterday’s incident, in which seven people were killed and 13 injured when a matatu ran over an improvised explosive device (IED) in Mandera County, is the latest of such cowardly attacks on the country by terrorists. There are others, including the one in which judicial officers were injured in Lamu County.
Eyewitnesses say the attackers first fired a rocket-propelled grenade before shooting at a motor vehicle. This could easily undermine delivery of justice by instilling fear in the people assigned this vital mandate. Security agencies must not allow that to happen. This is why the deployment of more security personnel is welcome.
The Somalia-based Al-Shabaab terrorist group has been taking advantage of the largely porous 900-kilometre border to engage in its criminal mischief. But thanks to increased monitoring by Kenyan security personnel, there have not been a major attack in recent times.
This is so yet the terrorists have established cells made up mainly of their Kenyan allies. They have, hence, resorted to planting IEDs, which have claimed the lives of bus passengers and security officers on patrol. The terrorists are also notorious for sabotaging mobile phone masts to cut off communication in and out of this region.
This stretch of territory, from the border all the way to Lamu, is under siege. These shadowy characters know quite well that they are no match for the well-trained Kenyan security personnel. They, thus, prefer to plant IEDs or ambush their victims in the bush. Their local allies play a big role in the attacks, which have killed nearly 20 people, including police officers.
Security intelligence indicates that big development projects are being targeted as a nuisance factor—such as the burning of eight trucks at a construction site. The measures so far taken to prevent attacks include a dusk-to-dawn curfew.
There is a need to step up surveillance to assess the magnitude of the threat. Based on the findings, an all-out joint police and military security operation should then be mounted to hunt down the criminals planting the explosives and defuse them to curb the terror hovering over the region.
