Writes Leo Oderea Omolo
The startling and shocking revelation was made on Wednesday this week that the Somalia based Al-qaeda terrorists groups operating inside Somalia is now offering colossal amount of money to the tune of USD 8,000 per head of any Kenyan security officer killed by its agents.
Making the revelation, the Garrisa regional commissioner Maalim Muhammed said the Kenya government got the information after intercepting secret Al-Shabaab communications.
‘The payment depends on the rank of the officer killed, the Commissioner said, during this year Kenya’s independence Day celebrations held at the Garrisa Primary School ground amid tight security.
Muhammed disclosed that the bounty was a desperate attempt by the militias to cause violence and mayhem and a dash for the money.
There has been increase in the incidents of hit-and-run attacks, which have resulted in several security being ambushed, shot and killed in Garrisa town and its environs. Garrisa is a frontier town in the North Eastern Province of Kenya, which has a porous border line with Somalia running close to 1000 kilometers.
The Commissioner further disclosed that member of the Kenya army and police as well as members of other security agencies were target for the cowardice attacks.
The Commissioner further disclosed to the bewilderment of the crowd that has dispatched several team of security personnel to carry out thorough surveillance along the border line and check the activity of the thousands of refugee influx into Kenya after the recent discovery that some of the refugee are the one smuggling deadly weapons into the country.
The government, he said, has recently acquired some of the most sophisticated state-of-the art electronic equipment for the purpose of intercepting the militias’ communications and messages as part of its effort to keep their activities on check.
The Al-Shabaab militia are said to be using very high frequency radio communications to plan attacks in Kenya, but the government of the plan is aware of the plan and would soon close down all the privately owned radio Communications in order to frustrate them.
It has been established that after losing key tows to the combined forces of Kenya,African Union, the Somali government including the economically important port of Kismayu, the terrorist groups have since resorted to urban-guerrilla tactics of hit-and-run inside Kenya.Their operations included setting explosives in towns, inside public passenger services vehicles, Christian churches and crowded locations within the capital city of Nairobi.
Other reports says the militias have infiltrated their agents into key town in Kenya, especially the urban centers which are located close to Kenya-Somalia border, and in the refugees camps, whose inhabitants are mostly people of Somali origins.
Al-Shabaan’s infiltrators are armed with deadly explosive, pistols, rifles even setting explosives inside passenger service vehicle and even killing passably
A Nairobi suburb of Earthlight, whose inhabitants are mostly Kenyan Somalis has of late become no-go-area following series of explosions which have resulted in deaths of many Kenya while more are.
The Garrisa Commissioner said,” We have some businessmen, who have installed radio communications on their business premises, But the government has to review the system because the terrorists are known to be using the same communication gadgets to plan attack inside Kenya, adding that some radio communication owners were under probe because of their links with militia groups outside Kenya.
The Jamhuri celebrations were meant to mark Kenya’s 49 anniversary of independence and was held in every regional, divisions, districts and even in rural locations.
LAST MONTH THE Kenyan security agencies arrested six people in Garrisa.The men were suspected of conveying illegal weapons into the town. And were planning mayhem during the Xmas festivities..
According to the police sources in Garrisa the suspects wer3e arrested at a place called Ruqa along the Kenya-Somalia border, four of the suspects escaped, but upon checking their luggage, the police discovered hand grenades, two pistols, several AK47 assault rifles, and 86 rounds of assorted ammunition.
Meanwhile Kenya police has dispatched more security personnel to the Kenya-Somalia border to carryout thorough security surveillance on refugees arriving into the country.The police said they are concerned
Ends