Al-shabaab gunmen raid Mandera again

By Adow Juba

Suspected Somali gunmen have yet again raided a Kenyan border town and carjacked a private vehicle before crossing back to their country.

The gunmen believed to be members of Al-Shabaab crossed into Mandera at 7.20pm on Friday and carjacked the vehicle from a petrol station after firing several times in the air.

Confirming the incident North Eastern PC James Ole Serian said three Somali gunmen sneaked into the country and made away with a private Toyota Hilux double cabin with registration number KBC 862S.

He said the gunmen who are believed to have crossed from Bulla-Hawa in Somalia traced the car into a filling station.

"The gunmen forced the driver, Mr Issack Adan, out of the car and then shot severally in the air before driving away with the vehicle," the PC said.

This raises the question: Could the raid, which comes barely a month after an aborted kidnap of an Italian nun in Wajir town, be an indication that hundreds of security personnel including the military manning the volatile Kenya-Somalia border are not on alert?

The PC defended them as being on high alert and said more security officers were deployed to thwart a repeat of such incursion from Al-Shabaab or any other foreign criminals.