Police officer shot dead in ambush by gunmen in Wajir
FILE IMAGE OF A POLICE LINE
A police officer was shot and killed in an ambush by gunmen in Dagahaley area, Wajir County.
The shooting happened on Wednesday 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.
The gang crosses from Somalia through the porous Kenya-Somalia border for the mission.
Police have intensified operations in the area to address such incidents.
Most of the attackers are members of al Shabaab terror group and their collaborators operating in the area, officials said.
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.