Workers demand to be evacuated from Mandera as they move to KDF camp

Hundreds of non-locals working in Mandera County on Monday camped at a Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) unit outpost, demanding to be evacuated due to insecurity.

This follows the killing of 28 people on a Nairobi-bound bus by Al-Shabaab terrorists on Saturday.

Those at the KDF camp are mainly teachers, health workers, construction workers and other civil servants.

They said they feared for their lives following reports that Al-Shabaab informers had marked their houses with the intention of attacking them any time.

The group had earlier camped at the Administration Police camp but later moved to the KDF camp at Bulla Mpya, accusing the APs of poor reception.

FELT SAFER AT KDF CAMP

“We feel safer here than at the AP camp,” one of the workers said when Deputy County Commissioner Elvis Korir visited them.

Efforts by Mr Korir to plead with the workers to return to the AP camp as the government planed their evacuation fell on deaf ears.

There was a mass exodus of non-locals from Mandera on Monday, with all the public service vehicles leaving the border town recording full bookings.

The flights that operate from the county thrice a week were also fully booked.

The workers carried their valuables and other belongings to the KDF camp, where they were still camping by Monday evening.

Earlier Monday, health workers stationed in Mandera County threatened to abandon their workstations due to insecurity.

The health workers said they feared for their lives and claimed the county government had abandoned them.

The workers met Monday at a hospital and said they had written to the Mandera County Health department about their concerns.