Leaders discuss security after deadly Al-Shabaab attack in Hulugho

Leaders in Ijara sub-county held consultative talks to deliberate on the recent incursion by the Al-Shabaab militant group in Hulugho that left two public servants dead and caused widespread destruction.

The meeting, chaired by Ijara Member of Parliament Abdi Ali Sheikhow, saw top regional security officials discuss possible ways of averting further infiltration by the insurgents into the country.

The Hulugho subcounty Security Committee had met local elders to brainstorm how the community could cooperate with law enforcement agencies by providing timely, critical information to prevent a recurrence of a similar attack, in which a local chief and a teacher were shot dead.

Speakers at the meeting underscored the importance of maintaining security in the Hulugho border town due to its proximity to the troubled southern Somalia region of Kolbio and the Boni Forest, where offshoots of the Al-Qaeda terror group have set up bases.

The deliberate, targeted killing of Boma Location chief Abdifatah Gani and Hulugho Primary School teacher Stephen Musili earlier in the week has sent security agencies back to the drawing board, as the presence of several military installations in the region appears not to have deterred the ragtag militants.

The meeting comes amid reports that armoured personnel carriers and a convoy of Kenya Defence Forces vehicles were spotted ferrying troops towards the Hulugho border town and the troubled Boni Forest.

Fear has gripped local administrators, with some raising concerns over their safety and appealing to Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen to issue them with firearms for self-defence following the untimely assassination of their colleague.

The killing has also sparked anxiety among non-local teaching staff, with the majority of them now seeking transfers after it emerged that their slain colleague suffered collateral damage in a wider scheme to eliminate the administrator.

However, teachers’ unions, including the Kenya National Union of Teachers and the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers , as well as a Union of Kenya Civil Servants representative, have urged the local community to work closely with security agencies to restore confidence among non-local staff working in the region.