Police shoot dead two Muslim clerics in Mandera

Six hand grenades on display at coast provincial police headquarters in Mombasa on March 18, 2014. Police in Mandera recovered 11 grenades after shooting dead two people. PHOTO/LABAN WALLOGA

What you need to know:

  • Police recovered 11 grenades from the Probox vehicle, which was crossing over to Somalia
  • A third man who was in the vehicle escaped

Two Muslim clerics were shot dead by police in Mandera after they defied a directive to stop.

A third man who was in the vehicle escaped.

Police recovered 11 grenades from the Probox vehicle, which was crossing over to Somalia in the Sunday night incident.

“They were crossing over the border to pick a terrorist when police got information from the locals,” area County Commissioner Michael Tialal told Daily Nation.

He said police laid an ambush and after ordering the driver to stop, the two passengers in the vehicle hurled three hand grenades at them before the vehicle sped-off prompting the officers to pursue them.

However the grenades did not explode and eventually the officers caught up with the sheiks at Shafe-Shafe location outside Mandera town where they shot them.