Johannesburg – Kenyan police have thwarted another suspected terrorist attack as the country continues to reel from last week’s attack on the DusitD2 Hotel by al-Shabaab which killed 21 people in Nairobi.
Monday's attempt by suspected members of the Somali Islamist group on a Chinese-owned construction company in the north-eastern region of Kenya was contained in the early stages as it unfolded, the East African reported.
Four people were wounded by the assailants as they tried to hit the site, where the Chinese road construction company is building the Garissa-Modogashe highway in Garissa County, not far from the Kenyan-Somali border.
Hooded militants armed with AK-47 rifles kidnapped a local from a nearby village and ordered him to take them to the construction site in Shimbirey, about 50km from Garissa town.
However, police guarding the site were tipped off by villagers.
As the militants opened fire indiscriminately, forcing workers housed outside the site to flee, an exchange of fire with the police led to the attackers running away and managing to escape.
However, during the fire fight, the wife of one of the guards manning the gate was shot from behind. She was rushed to Garissa County Referral hospital where her condition has been reported as stable. Her husband is one of the other three people injured.