President William Ruto vows to eliminate Al Shabaab in North Eastern
President William Ruto has said the government will pursue Al Shabaab Militia who abducted five Chiefs who were abducted yesterday in Wargadud Mandera ahead of his visit to the Northern Eastern region.

President William Ruto has said the government will pursue Al Shabaab militia who abducted five Chiefs who were abducted yesterday in Wargadud Mandera ahead of his visit to the Northern Eastern region.
Ruto spoke in Mandera during his first day of the four days’ work visit to the region and said the government has succeeded in downgrading the Al Shabaab activities in the region.
“They abducted the five chiefs to cause anxiety and panic in the region. We will ensure the five chiefs are home as we deal with the criminals. We have successfully downgraded the ability of the Al Shabaab to unleash violence on the people of Northern Kenya,” he said.
“They those if they abduct the Chiefs, I would suspend my tour in the region. I have come to Mandera and I will sleep here,” he added.
The president said the government will not cede an inch of its part to criminals as he promised to deal with the Al Shabaab Militia promising to eliminate them.
“This region is also Kenya. Every part of Kenya is important and we are not going to cede an inch of our country to criminals and those who want to unleash mayhem on the Kenyan republic. We will go after them and deal with them to ensure they are eliminated.
The president’s visit to the North Eastern region comes hours after five chiefs were hijacked in the Mandera-Elwak road at around 7:30 am while in a saloon car.
The five including Hassan Kulmia (Wargadud East location), Mohamed Hache ( Chachabole) Adaw Mohamed (Wargadud Town), Ibrahim Gabow (Assistant chief Wargadud East sublocation), and Abdi Suraw (Quramathow) were enroute Elwak for a planning meeting ahead of the president’s visit.
The suspected militia are suspected to have fled towards the Somalia direction and the police have confirmed a multi-agency operation is on to rescue them.
The kidnap comes at a time when the country has experienced a lull in terror attacks with Mandera, Lamu, and Garissa experiencing a total of 12 attacks with Garissa having the highest at 8 attacks as per the data collected by IGAD’s Centre of Excellence for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (ICEPCVE).
In December last year, an officer from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCIL) was shot and killed in Lafey Mandera County; four months after a government driver was also killed after he was shot by suspected Al-Shabaab Militia and the vehicle stolen and driven towards Somalia.
A resident was later arrested for having facilitated the Al Shabaab.
Mandera which borders Somalia has been under constant attacks by the militia which led to the suspension of reopening the Kenya-Somalia border.