Kenya ambush kills at least eight, police say

Gunmen ambushed a security vehicle in northeastern Kenya on Tuesday, killing at least eight people, including two police reservists, police said.

Mandera County police commander Robinson Ndiwa said an armed militia opened fire at about 7:00 am on a vehicle escorting construction workers along the Arabia Road corridor near the Kenya-Somalia border.

Ndiwa said a team overseeing construction of the Mandera-Arabia-Lafey road was ambushed in the Hagarsu area. He said two National Police Reservists and six civilians were killed.

The motive for the attack remains unclear. Ndiwa said security agencies had been mobilised to pursue the attackers.

Mandera County borders Somalia and has faced repeated attacks by Al-Shabaab militants in the past. In July, five people, including four police officers, were killed when suspected jihadists ambushed a patrol vehicle near Lafey, a town in Mandera County about 10 kilometres from the Somali border.