One security officer was injured during the incident on Wednesday morning. He said arrests were prompted with the fact that no one was seen running away from the scene. Mwivanda said there is no need of giving the Mandera Governor more police officers for his security but instead the officers protecting him will have to undergo retraining. The Mandera governor faulted the police failure to provide a single report of the four attacks that have been aimed at him.
According to police spokesperson Zipporah Mboroki, Mandera Governor Ali Roba was not injured by the device that had been planted on the roadside and timed to hit the convoy at Rhamu bus stop. Mboroki said the device is believed to have been buried onto the road by unknown assailants some minutes before the convoy of the governor heading to the County headquarter offices passed. Mboroki said police are still investigating the motive and those behind the planting of the explosive on the busy road.
Mboroki said police will carry out a thorough investigation to establish criminals planting of a dead explosive on roads. It is not clear who was behind the incident. Kenya Red Cross said two people had been injured in the incident. Roba declined to comment on the incident.
Mandera, which is a town riddled with past explosive attacks from suspected Islamist terror group based in a neigbouring war- ravaged Somalia and incessant inter clan fighting between the minority Degodia and the majority Garre community, has enjoyed relative calm in the last few months.
Since Kenya sent troops across the border into Somalia in October , northern and parts of eastern Kenya have been hit by a series of blasts, many targeting local security forces and humanitarian workers. Several attacks believed to have been carried out by 'al-Shabaab' have occurred in Mandera, Wajir, and Garissa and Dadaab districts of northern Kenya, even as the military reports gains against the Islamist group by capturing their military bases and killing scores of them.
