Nairobi: Gunmen killed at least seven people as they made their way to pray at a mosque in the remote Kenyan town of Malele close to the Somali border, a local government official said on Thursday.
Kenya has been hit by a wave of grenade and bomb attacks since its troops crossed into Somalia in October 2011 and has blamed Al Qaida-linked Somali militants and their sympathisers.
Malele is close to the world’s largest refugee camp, Dadaab, which holds nearly half a million people, most of them Somalis who have fled more than two decades of war and famine.
“The bandits opened fire at the villagers at Malele area which is near the Dadaab refugee camp in Liboi district and killed five men and two women,” Maalim Mohammad, Garissa County Commissioner, told Reuters. “We have dispatched a team of security personnel to pursue the bandits.”
The attacks in Kenya, the region’s biggest economy, have deepened fears of insecurity ahead of a general election in March. The attackers have mostly targeted the remote northeast.
The recent spate in violence in different pockets on the country has increased since Kenya announced that it will go to polls on March 4.
The polls are getting wide attention since a flawed presidential election in late 2007 devolved into mass violence that killed more than 1,000 people.
— Agencies
