Four Kenyan police officers have been killed after a suspected extremist being held at a police station grabbed a gun and shot at officers.
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Also on Thursday, al-Shabaab militants attacked a different police station in the east of Kenya, but the attack was repulsed, Boinnet said.
Police said the shooter snatched a gun from a guard and opened fire.
“His attempts to escape were thwarted by quick arrival by other officers”, Boinnet said.
Reinforcements being deployed to #Kapenguria police station, public being urged to keep away.
One recce squad officer, an OCS and five police officers were killed by their colleague at Kapenguria Police Station on Thursday.
Maslah is said to be a radical who stormed the station to rescue a suspected al Shabaab terrorist who is a teacher by profession.
Some Kenyan media outlets have been reporting that least six officers died.
Al Jazeera’s Soi said: “People on the ground that we’ve been talking to say he was a suspected al-Shabab sympathiser [who had] been recruiting young people in the area”.
The al-Shabaab jihadists have repeatedly targeted Kenya during recent years, after Nairobi sent in troops to Somalia to curb the terror threat.
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An Associated Press reporter at the scene said gunshots could be heard after police commandos went into the building, and two nearby schools have been closed and the children evacuated.
