Soldiers hurt in Mandera blast

Two Kenyan soldiers were on Monday injured when their vehicle drove over an explosive in Mandera.

Police immediately arrested a middle-aged man suspected to have detonated the explosive using his mobile phone.

North Eastern police boss Leo Nyongesa said the man was arrested soon after the truck blew up. “We recovered the phone and detectives are interrogating the man,” said Mr Nyongesa.

The injured Kenya Defence Forces soldiers and two others were riding escort for another truck.

Military spokesman Colonel Cyrus Oguna said the injured soldiers were not part of the Kenya Defence Forces/Amisom troops but were deployed in the Kenyan border town.

The injured officers are being treated at Mandera District Hospital, Col Oguna said.

He said the truck was extensively damaged.

Last November a soldier was killed and 12 others were injured, five of them seriously, when their truck detonated an explosive in Mandera.

Mr Nyongesa urged members of the public to be vigilant and cooperate with security forces in the fight against al-Shabaab. On Saturday, two refugees were shot dead at Ifo camp near Dadaab while two grenades hurled at a nearby police station.

No one was injured in the police camp attack.

Garissa residents said a few hours before the incident, worshippers coming from a mosque in Ifo were attacked by armed men and a woman died after she was shot in the neck.

The attackers are believed to be Al-Shabaab but police blamed defected Transitional Federal Government of Somalia soldiers.

On Sunday, police arrested a man in Ifo believed to be behind last week’s Lagdera explosive device attack in which an Administration Police officer was killed and four others seriously injured.

Kenya has witnessed a spate of grenade attacks in recent months, the latest being at a popular night club in Mombasa where one person died and four were injured.

Meanwhile, the British government has donated four trucks and communication equipment worth Sh50 million to the Administration Police for the fight against terror.

The trucks, long range communication radios and search equipment were handed over to the AP’s Rural Border Patrol Unit in Nairobi yesterday by British High Commissioner to Kenya Peter Tibber.

The envoy warned that following attacks in Northern Kenya and at the Coast, it was clear the terrorism threat was real.

He said the UK would continue supporting the police and boost the investigative ability of the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU) and CID.

Last month, the UK donated 10 vehicles to the ATPU.

Mr Tibber warned officers against human rights violations.

Internal Security Minister George Saitoti said the donation will go a long way in fighting terror.

He said this year, the AP and their regular counterparts had acquired a helicopter each and he expected more vehicles by the end of next month.