Wajir County Commissioner Naftali Mung’athia said the seven had bullets lodged in various parts of their bodies and could not get treatment at Wajir general hospital where they had been taken after the 8pm incident. Police also recovered a grenade that failed to detonate after it was hurled at residents outside a studio near Baraza Park in the centre of the town.
“We suspect that the attackers were not the al-Shabaab militia but their sympathizers because the attack was not well coordinated. If they were the al-Shabaab we would have had more collateral damage,” Mr Mung’athia told Reporters on phone.
The county governor Ahmed Abdullahi and the county commissioner visited the injured at the hospital and promised to work together to prevent such attacks. Mr Mung’athia said the attackers arrived in the town in a taxi and hurled the grenades where one person died on the spot before driving off and shooting other residents at the ADC market about a kilometre away. (READ: Twin blasts kill one and injure scores in Wajir attack)
YET TO ARREST ATTACKERS
The county security committee met on Friday morning and laid down plans on how to tackle the security menace that is threatening peace in the region. Speaking to the Nation on Thursday evening, Mr Mung’athia said security officers were pursuing the attackers but none had been arrested at the time of writing. Residents who spoke to the Nation blamed the police for not divulging reports after concluding their investigations but Mr Mung’athia promised to reveal everything on the attacks.
“We have enough personnel in the town to maintain security but the main challenge is along the porous border point. We are appealing to the government to increase our personnel around those areas to assist us secure the county,” said Mr Mung’athia.
The governor said there were few security officers in the county and asked the National government to supplement them to help improve security.
During the Jamhuri Day celebrations, Wajir leaders called on the government to employ more police reservists to help curb cases of increased insecurity. Wajir South MP Abdullahi Diriye said the main problem in the area was lack of enough security officers and linked recent attacks at Liboi area to the shortage.
He pointed out several areas in Wajir South and Wajir East where there are no police posts saying they were prone to attacks.
The county commander urged the residents to embrace the Nyumba Kumi initiative to improve their security, saying residents needed to know their neighbours for improved security.
