Nairobi (Somalia Today) – Al-Shabaab militants killed a government administrator and a teacher in a dawn raid in eastern Kenya near the Somali border on Monday, police and witnesses said, the latest in a string of attacks targeting state officials in the region.
The assailants stormed the town of Hulugho in Garissa County at around 4:00 am, targeting the home of local chief Abdi Fatah Gani before turning their weapons on a neighbour.
In a press statement, National Police Service spokesperson Muchiri Nyaga condemned the attack as a “cowardly act” and sought to calm rising tensions.
“We strongly wish to reassure the public, particularly in Hulugho, Garissa County, that their safety and security remain our utmost priority,” Nyaga said, announcing that the service had “immediately heightened security patrols and operations in the region.”
“It is extremely unfortunate that we have lost two lives at the hands of militants,” Garissa County Commissioner Mohamed Mwabudzo said, confirming the deaths.
“The late chief was a hardworking administrator who played a pivotal role in ensuring the area remained peaceful,” he added.
According to police reports and local sources, the gunmen ambushed Gani shortly after he returned from the county capital, shooting him at close range in front of his family before torching his vehicle.
Witnesses said the attackers then killed Stephen Musili, a teacher at a local primary school who lived nearby.
“The militants sprayed my colleague with bullets,” said Agnes Kavatha, a fellow teacher and neighbour who witnessed the assault. “I can’t believe what I saw this morning. It traumatised me deeply.”
Targeting ‘non-locals’
The killing of Musili highlights a long-standing tactic by the Al-Qaeda-linked group to target non-local workers—often Christians from other parts of Kenya—to sow discord and force an exodus of skilled professionals from the Muslim-majority border region.
Following the attack, teachers in Hulugho issued a fresh appeal to the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) for transfers to safer areas.
“We want to continue doing our job of teaching, but we cannot work in a situation where we fear for our lives,” said Meshack Sifuna, a teacher at Hulugho Primary School.
Kenya’s arid northeast has suffered a severe education crisis in recent years, with hundreds of schools closing or understaffed after non-local teachers were withdrawn following a series of targeted beheadings and shootings by the militants.
Border insecurity
Hulugho lies close to the porous 700-kilometre (435-mile) border with Somalia, an area frequently infiltrated by Al-Shabaab fighters.
Local sources suggested the slain chief had been on a militant hit-list for his efforts to root out insurgent sympathisers.
“It appears the militants had been closely monitoring the chief’s movements… They knew exactly when to strike,” a local source told Somalia Today on condition of anonymity.
“When the teacher heard gunfire, he ran out of his house. Because he lived near the chief’s residence, the militants saw him, chased him and shot him several times before fleeing,” the source said.
Police headquarters in Nairobi confirmed that “a multi-agency security team is actively pursuing the perpetrators” and that “the area has been secured.”
“They can run, but they cannot hide. We will definitely catch up with them,” Mwabudzo vowed.
Al-Shabaab has waged a deadly insurgency against the central government in Mogadishu for over 15 years.
The group frequently carries out cross-border retaliatory attacks in Kenya, which deployed troops to Somalia in 2011 to combat the militants.
Kenya is a major troop contributor to the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS).
Monday’s assault follows a pattern of violence in Garissa. In June 2023, seven people were killed in two separate roadside attacks in the same region involving improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
The county was also the site of one of Kenya’s deadliest terror attacks in 2015, when gunmen stormed Garissa University, killing 148 people, mostly students.
