A team of police from the elite Special Operations Group (SOG) stopped eight al Shabaab terrorists who were attempting to set up Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDS) at the Welmerer-Yumbia area in Garissa.
The team swiftly responded to information reported by the local community that eight terrorists had been spotted attempting to set up IEDS on the road and stopped their mission Monday morning.
Police said the officers engaged the terrorists and managed to recover assembled IEDS, which were to be used to attack road users on the Welmerer-Yumbis road.
The explosives were dug out of holes they had been planted and destroyed.
Police said this came following ongoing operations in the area targeting terror group which has been terrorizing locals.
Police said they have intensified the operations to address the threats. The terrorists cross through the Kenya-Somalia porous border for the mission.
Parts of Garissa have in the past been seen as hotbed for the terror group as they cross and camp there to plan attacks. But persistent police operations have disrupted the plans.
Last week, a police officer was shot and killed in an ambush by gunmen in Dagahaley area, Wajir County.
The shooting happened on October 22, 2025 evening as the deceased identified as Constable Elijah Orwa and his two colleagues responded to a shooting report.
They were in the company of two members of the National Police Reserve.
The police said the group had been alerted of a shooting in the area on the Dagahaley-Mathabaquay route when they responded there.
On arrival aboard a private salon car they were ambushed by gunmen who were waiting and hiding, prompting a shootout.
This was after the driver stopped the car prompting the officers to take cover in a thicket.
It was then that the body of constable Orwa was found lying in a pool of blood and next to his rifle loaded with 30 bullets and three poaches.
The team lay at the scene with the body for hours while seeking reinforcement as they feared the gunmen were still there waiting for an opportunity to strike.
The gunmen are believed to be members of al-Shabaab terror group which operates in the area amid ongoing operations targeting their activities.
Somalia has not had an effective central government since the 1991 overthrow of President Siad Barre’s military regime, which ushered in more than two decades of anarchy and conflict in a country deeply divided along clan lines.
Kenya launched Operation Linda Nchi on October 14, 2011, after gunmen seized tourists at the Coast which the Government saw as a threat to the country’s sovereignty as it targeted the nation’s economic lifeline-Tourism.
Kenya’s incursion into southern Somalia started after the kidnapping of two Spanish women, who were working for MSF at the Dadaab refugee camp.
The abductions were carried out by the militants who the troops said planned to push away under the Operation Linda Nchi.
Two years later, the troops managed to take control of Kismayo port under Operation Sledge Hammer.
The troops have liberated many regions near the Kenyan porous border.
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