Game ranger killed in bandit ambush

A game ranger has been killed and two others seriously wounded by highway bandits in Garba Tula District.

The injured Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) rangers have been airlifted to Nairobi Hospital where they are undergoing treatment for bullet wounds while the body of the killed officer is at Maua Methodist Hospital mortuary.

The officers drove into the bandits’ trap at 11pm on Saturday near Eldera trading centre where they were sprayed with bullets.

Remove boulders

The ranger was killed when he alighted from the KWS car to remove boulders laid across the road to block vehicles at the junction of roads heading to Modogashe-Garbatula towns and Banane trading centre in North Eastern Province.

The rangers were on routine patrol of the area.

According to Isiolo police boss Augustine Nthumbi, the bandits mistook the KWS vehicle for a miraa (khat) transport car and when the ranger alighted they sprayed him with bullets mistaking him for an escort policeman.

He continued: “The roads in Garba Tula have become dangerous since the year begun and even the amnesty initiative to recover illegal guns from the hands of civilians is not helping the situation.”  

Miraa transporters crisscross the expansive North Eastern Province at night delivering the twigs to various towns from Maua Town, their base for khat business.

Last one year

Several roads in Garba Tula have become impassable due to bandit attacks over the last one year.

In November, a bodyguard attached to Garba Tula district commissioner was sprayed with bullets and killed on the spot between Kinna Town and Maua on their way from Isiolo Town.

The DC was not in the vehicle at the time of the attack. The second bodyguard also sustained several bullet wounds, but has since been treated and discharged from hospital.