Mothers camping at Mandera airstrip airlifted to Nairobi

Mothers and their children camp at the Mandera KDF airstrip. A security expert has blamed poor intelligence for the Mandera bus attack, which claimed 28 lives. PHOTO | MANASE OTSIALO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Those evacuated were mothers and the sick who were transported to Nairobi after three days at the KDF camp.
  • The Kenya Air Force plane that brought food and other basic items went back with 40 mothers and pregnant or breast-feeding women.
  • Mr Tom Otieno who is also at the camp said KDF did well to evacuate some of the women with children.
  • Some of the people who had flocked the camp at the airstrip had returned to their houses after the government assured them of security.

The military Wednesday airlifted Kenyans who have been camping at its base in Mandera following last Saturday’s killing of 28 people in a bus attack.

Those evacuated were mothers and the sick who were transported to Nairobi after three days at the KDF camp.

Speaking at the compound where more than 300 people have sought refuge, Ms Nancy Nyangau said the Kenya Air Force plane that brought food and other basic items went back with 40 mothers and pregnant or breast-feeding women.

“We are still waiting here to be airlifted, perhaps tomorrow,” said Nancy, a nurse in Mandera and currently at the military camp.

She said that KDF has been “considerate and generous” to them.

“We appreciate the services we are getting from the KDF and appeal to the government to try and move us out of here. We need to be with our people back at home,” Ms Nyangau said.

SOME RETURNED TO HOUSES

She said some of the people who had flocked the camp at the airstrip had returned to their houses after the government assured them of security.

Mr Tom Otieno who is also at the camp said KDF did well to evacuate some of the women with children and that the services at the camp were good.

“We are okay here and we feel at half-home, but we want to be at our real homes. We ask the government not to go by what Mr Kinyua (Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua) told us,’ said Mr Otieno.