Kenyans took to social media in reaction to Thursday’s double attacks on security personnel in two remote parts of the country, calling on police bosses to clear the air over the attacks.
In the first incident, 20 gunmen, believed to be Al-Shabaab militants, attacked a security camp in Lamu County at the coast region at 1am.
Police say that they killed one terrorist and they themselves suffered one injury.
A statement from the Inspector General of Police, Joseph Boinnet, said that Al-Shabaab gunmen attacked the Mangai Rapid Deployment Unit (RDU) Camp in Lamu East Sub County, but were repelled by Kenyan security forces.
He said “several” terrorists died and others escaped with “severe injuries” and that a body was later found “with an AK 47 rifle and other terrorist paraphernalia”.
However, local media reports say that only one terrorist was killed. This attack comes a few days after a security car was hit by an Improvised Explosive Device in Ishakani area at the Kenya-Somalia border which left one Kenyan security officer dead and several injured.
Kenya police launched a campaign against Al-Shabaab in 2011, dubbed Operation Linda Boni, and set up several security camps near the Boni forest in Lamu. It is believed that the terrorists hide in the Boni forest.
Police said that the attackers were shooting at random with a mission to force their way into the camp but were repelled by Kenyan security forces.
In the second attack on Thursday, the Inspector General of Police said that at 5.30 am, an individual who had been arrested for suspected terror links managed to grab a firearm from a report officer and shot at several officers who were on duty at police station in Kapenguria in West Pokot County.
The police boss said that an elite hostage rescue team was dispatched to rescue other prisoners in the police cell and bring the stand-off to an end. He said the number and nature of casualties was yet to be fully established.
The siege lasted about six hours and left the attacker as well as an unconfirmed number of police officers dead. However, later in the day local media reported the gunman at the Kapenguria police station attack was a policeman who was serving at the same station. Police sources told local media that the officer turned against his colleagues and shot them dead. It is not clear what his motive was.
Al Jazeera tv station reported that the attacker was shot dead by the GSU Recce squad officers during the gunfight.
The police sources told media that the man who had been thought to be behind the siege and identified as Omar Eumod, a teacher at Victoria Primary in Kacheliba was alive in the cells.
Kenyans turned to social media, some condemning the laxity of Kenyan police, while others sympathised with them for being ill equipped to fight terrorists.
A person named Samburu said: “As usual the police are as clueless as ever when not involved in crime and bribe taking. How can one person kill 5 officers and a whole police station be unable to subdue one man? What does that say about police training and competence? Are these really the people that can protect us from well equipped but rag tag terrorists and criminals? It is time Kenya raised the bar on police recruitment. No one with a D should ever be recruited.”
Mugabe responded: “It is not about a D but the passion to be a police officer. Most people join police force in Kenya as source of employment and that is why it is quite difficult for those who have the passion but no money to join the service. Most police officers in Kenya are unqualified,
ill trained to even defend themselves leave alone defending the public. If you were to snatch a gun from them, they become helpless. That’s why they kill innocent Kenyans at the slightest provocation. Just look at how the US police handled the Dallas shooting. The officers restrained
themselves, did not fire indiscriminately.”
Maji baridi said: “I’ve said it before, Kenya should stop treating terror suspects the same way they treat common criminals…..and offer them no bail either. And most of all, build a separate prison to house them to prevent them from radicalising others.”
Karanste King Tut said: “Kenya police do thing casually. The only time they act professionally is when they abduct and kill innocent Kenyan am afraid to state I may not sympathise with the police esp APs……
Niamey said: “Until some other criteria other than height, tribe and how fast one runs is used in police recruitment such will continue to happen. Our police officers hardly use their brains instead they just use thorax, unsatisfied mouths full of dirty Swahili vocabularies and whatever else. They can’t even do a proper search to a suspected terrorist…”
ThebullJ said: “###ON THE OTHER HAND KILLING COPS SHOULD STOP….WE ARE QUICK TO PROTEST POLICE KILLING AND QUIET WHEN OUR SECURITY PERSONNEL ARE
TARGETED.”
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