Kenya on high alert over Al-Shabaab

• Latest capture of border town puts the militia at an advantage

Kenya has increased security surveillance along the border with Somalia to prevent the fighting in the lawless state from spilling over into the country.

Internal Security permanent secretary Francis Kimemia said on Tuesday that security committees chaired by district commissioners in North Eastern Province were monitoring the latest gains made by Al-Shabaab rebels, who captured the border town of Dhobley at the weekend.

Speaking during an induction course for newly appointed DCs at Kenya Institute of Administration, Mr Kimemia said all the fighting was taking place inside Somalia and not on Kenyan soil.

Al-Shaabab’s latest incursion into Hizbul-Islam territory yielded a huge battle that sent hundreds of refugees into Kenya.

“We couldn’t stand this latest flare-up,” Mr Ahmed Abdi, a Somali refugee, told the Daily Nation by telephone from the Dadaab Refugee Camp. “We had to do anything to cross into Kenya.”

But not all the displaced found their way into camps, and reports abound that a number of them have sought refuge in the Kenyan border town of Dhobley, which shares the same name with its Somali neighbour.

“Some of the people here came from as far away as Afmadow, the stronghold of Hizbul-Islam. Others came from Qoqaani, another town formerly controlled by the Hizbul militants,” a Dhobley resident confirmed.

The capture of the border town now gives Al-Shaabab dominion over the vast province of Lower Juba, which encompasses five towns, and which shares a long border with Kenya’s north eastern frontier.

At the Garissa Provincial Hospital, sources indicated that about 17 Somalis injured during the fighting between the rival rebels had sought treatment at the facility, and that they were yet to be released by Tuesday.

A health worker who spoke to the Daily Nation on condition of anonymity — perhaps because the Kenyan Government closed its border with Somalia in 2006 as the toppled Islamic Courts Union made its murderous forays into the country — said he had seen a number of injured foreigners in the hospital.

“I, however, cannot give you further details,” he said.