Police in Garissa have foiled what would have been a massive terror attack after heavily armed Al-Shaabab militants attacked a Chinese owned construction site in Shimbirey Mbalambala sub-county on Sunday night.
The gunmen reportedly opened fire at the construction site but were successfully fought off.
According to Garissa Town OCPD, Aaron Morasae, police moved in with speed and opened fire on the suspects before they could strike.
He said they were no reports of fatalities although the guard who was manning the gate was injured along with his wife.
''We have successfully repelled an imminent attack on a construction site and we can report that calm has returned to the area,'' he said.
Mr Morase said police are pursuing the militants who retreated after they were overpowered by the officers. He said the attackers escaped with gunshot wounds.
This comes in the backdrop of a heightened security operation in the country to flush out members of the terrorist group.
On Saturday, authorities arrested two gunmen after they were tricked into a police station by a taxi driver in Garissa County.
Upon searching, police recovered a cache of weapons and ammunition. They were later found to have aided in the Riverside attack that left 21 people dead.
The two men had hired the driver to ferry them from Hosingo area in Somalia to Hamey.
However, upon reaching their destination, the pair changed their minds and requested to be driven to Hagadera in Kenya.
The driver got alarmed after his passengers insisted that he should avoid highways and stick to unmanned routes through the bushes.
He complied with their request, driving his passengers through the bushes before making his way to a police post, to the surprise of his passengers.
A thorough search conducted by police saw them recover a Marakov Zeska pistol and several rounds of ammunition.
A white powdery substance which has since been taken for forensic analysis was also recovered.
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Al-Shabaab, an extremist group based in Somalia, claimed responsibility for a 2015 attack in Garissa that killed 147 people, mostly students. Al-Shabab also says it carried out the Jan. 15 attack at Dusit2 hotel in Nairobi that killed 21 people, including a police officer.
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