Two killed, 12 wounded in separate attacks in Marsabit

Marsabit killing

Ms Galano Jillo at the grave of her husband who was killed in an attack in Garshaba village in Marsabit in 2019. Knee-jerk reactions by the government in its attempts to end the killings have failed to yield results.

Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group

Two people, including a police commander, were killed and 12 others critically injured in Marsabit County in three separate attacks on Sunday.

The body of a man was found on Sunday morning in the ZMax area of Marsabit town with the head severed.

Marsabit County Commissioner Paul Rotich confirmed the body of a man in his mid-20s was found in the town on Sunday morning.

“Two people lost their lives and 12 others were injured in three separate criminal incidents that were reported in Marsabit town, Segel and Gof Choba areas,” Mr Rotich said.

The body was taken to the Marsabit Referral Hospital mortuary.

In a separate incident, eight people suffered serious bullet wounds after Maikona town-bound passenger vehicles and a police escort truck were attacked by unknown assailants and sprayed with bullets at around 2pm.

Three people, including one of the police officers escorting the passenger vehicles, suffered critical injuries and were airlifted to a hospital by a Kenya Red Cross emergency aircraft a few hours after the attack.

Mr Rotich said officers engaged the attackers in a fierce exchange of gunfire.

The second person died in a third attack in the Gof Choba area on the Moyale-Isiolo highway when a Nairobi-bound bus was ambushed by unknown gunmen on Sunday evening. Four other people were injured in the 6pm incident.

Marsabit Referral Hospital CEO Liban Waqo confirmed that one person died while undergoing treatment. His body was transferred to the hospital morgue.

Mr Rotich, the county commissioner, called on residents to maintain calm as security officers had been dispatched to quell tension in volatile areas.

The latest attacks came a few hours before KCPE examinations kicked off across Kenya, sparking fears among Marsabit residents that the tests might be interrupted at some centres.

Speaking to the Nation in his office on Thursday, Mr Rotich said adequate security measures had been taken to safeguard all examination centres in the troubled zones.

He maintained that no candidate would miss the exams because of a security crisis or famine.