Ijara: 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 a trail of destruction. The meeting, chaired by Ijara Member of Parliament Abdi Ali Sheikhow, saw top security officials in the region discuss possible ways of averting further infiltration of the insurgents into the country.

According to Kenya News Agency, the Hulugho Sub County security committee had met local elders to brainstorm on how the community could cooperate with law enforcement agencies by offering critical information in time to prevent 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 at the Hulugho border town due to its proximity to the troubled southern Somalia region of Kolbio and the Boni Forest, where the offshoots of the Al-Qaeda terror group had set bases.

The deliberate targeted killing of Boma location chief Abdifatah Gani and Hulugho Primary School Teacher Stephen Musili earlier in the week has thrown security agencies back to the drawing board, as the presence of several military installations in the region appears not to have deterred the militants. The meeting comes as armored personnel carriers and a convoy of Kenya Defence Forces vehicles were spotted ferrying troops towards Hulugho border town and the disturbed Boni Forest.

Fear has gripped local administrators, with some raising concern over their safety and appealing to Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen to issue them firearms for self-defense, following the untimely assassination of their colleague. The killing has also sparked anxiety among the non-local teaching staff, with the majority now seeking transfers after it emerged that their slain colleague merely suffered collateral damage in a wider scheme to eliminate the administrator.

However, teachers' unions including the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) and Kenya Union of Post Primary Teachers (KUPPET), as well as Union of Kenya Civil Servants (UKCS) representatives, have urged the local community to work closely with security apparatus to restore the confidence of non-local members to work in the region.