Senior police officer shot dead, three injured by suspected bandits in Samburu

A senior police officer was on Tuesday evening shot dead by suspected bandits in Marti area of Samburu north.

The officer was leading a team that was pursuing cattle rustlers who had stolen 50 herds of cattle in Suiyan village on Monday.

Three others were injured following the attack.

According to Samburu County police commander Karanja Muiruri, the inspector attached to Marti police station had led a successful operation to rescue two children aged 10 and 15 but when they returned to recover the stolen animals -they run into an ambush.

"They had successfully rescued the children and were in the process of recovering the stolen animals when they headed straight into the ambush," he said.

Samburu county referral hospital medical superintendent Silas Lodeke confirmed that three police officers were recovering at the hospital.

"One of them is nursing a gunshot wound on the arm while the other suffered shell shock due to the heavy artillery that was being used but he is now in stable condition," Lodeke said.

The body was taken at the Samburu county referral hospital mortuary.

This not the first attack against security personnel in the area. Last year in April, three police officers are among four people who were killed while five others were injured in an ambush by cattle rustlers in Samburu East constituency.

The officers were tracking down stolen animals when they were ambushed. In November 2012, 40 police officers and reservists were killed in the same area.