Kidnapped Kenyan officials released after two months, minister says

7/4/2025 19:44

Five local Kenyan officials have been released from captivity, Interior Minister Kipchumba Murkomen said on Monday, two months after they were kidnapped by suspected Islamist gunmen in the northeast of the country.



Gunmen believed to be from the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab group abducted the village chiefs, who were government-appointed local officials, in Mandera county in February near the border of Somalia, where the insurgents are based.



"We decided to work together with the community, and to work with the county government of Mandera... and this process has borne fruit," Murkomen told journalists, according to footage by broadcaster NTV Kenya seen on X.



Local media reported that al Shabaab had taken the chiefs across the border into Somalia.