By Andrew Wasike
NAIROBI, Kenya (AA)- Six police officers were killed on Wednesday in central Kenya in an ambush by bandits suspected of killing four people in the same area last week.
Police in the east African nation told local media that two of the police officers slain in the Laikipia County ambush were senior in rank, adding that some police officers injured in the attack had been airlifted to the capital Nairobi for treatment.
A police officer who spoke to Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper on condition of anonymity due to restrictions to speaking to the media said the police “were conducting a security patrol along the Baringo-Laikipia border when they were ambushed by over 100 bandits."
In last week’s attack, bandits made away with an unknown number of livestock. The attacks are not new to the area, with most of the area residents keeping livestock, and there is a long history of tribal clashes over grazing land and cattle rustling.
On Sunday seven people were killed and over 700 displaced in ethnic border clashes in Meru County near Laikipia.