Since the abduction of Assel Herera Correa, a general physician, and Landy Rodriguez, a surgeon, from Mandera town on Friday morning by the Somali-based Al Shabab militants, other doctors posted in Wajir and Garissa have been also recalled to Nairobi.
Two Cuban doctors who had been posted to Lamu in July last year, have left citing insecurity threats after the abduction of their colleagues in Mandera last Friday. It has been confirmed that the two doctors posted in Lamu, an orthopaedic surgeon and physician left the region over the weekend.
Lamu County Commissioner Joseph Kanyiri
However, Kanyiri downplayed the reports that Lamu is insecure for the Cuban doctors. “Mandera is very far from Lamu. This region is very secure at this time, and whether the doctors have left or not, it has nothing to do with the insecurity.
It normal for officers to go to Nairobi to give reports of what they have been doing on
He was speaking during a phone interview. Lamu County Health Executive Anne Gathoni confirmed that the two doctors have left the region. She however insisted that that it was routine for the Cuban nationals to go to Nairobi for debriefing.
“The two doctors left over the weekend; this has nothing to do with insecurity in Lamu, but it was because they were traumatized by the abduction of their colleagues in Mandera,” she said.
Mandera, Wajir, Garissa and Lamu Counties border Somalia and have been an easy target of the Al Qaeda-linked Al Shabab group.