The driver of a Lamu bound bus that was on Thursday morning attacked by suspected Al Shabab terrorists has come out to narrate the sad incident that saw three people lose their lives at the hands of the attackers.
Sad incident
Lamu attack (The Standard)
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Raymond Juma, who was driving a Mombasa Raha bus from Mombasa to Lamu, narrated that the attackers would have killed more people were it nit for his brave action to disobey the terrorist's attackers' command to stop.
When Juma refused to stop, the gunmen started spraying his bus with bullets but he still soldiered on before the vehicle was completely immobilized.
The driver, however, decried that a police vehicle that had been offering their bus, together with two others, quickly abandoned civilians after the suspected Al Shabab militia attacked.
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"They emerged from the forest and started firing indiscriminately, ordering us to stop. I engaged a higher gear and drove fast as they fired at us. Unfortunately, they deflated the tyres but I still managed to drive for about 100 metres," he recalled, adding that the police escort vehicle immediately made a u-turn and fled from the scene.
Juma's bold action helped some of the passengers run off into the neighboring forest while others were captured by the terrorists who sought to identify non-muslims with the aim of killing them all.
The driver's version of events was corroborated by a assenger, Thomas Kitsao, who was in another bus and who escaped during the melee.
"Our driver slowed down and as we approached the bus, the gunmen emerged from the forest. They fired in the air and ordered us to alight. They wore torn and dirty military regalia and their commander was speaking in fluent Kiswahili."
"The escort police vehicle which was behind us reversed and drove off as it came under heavy gunfire from the militants,” Kitsao recalled.
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Lamu County Police commander Perminius Kioi promised to carry out investigations to determine why the police escort fled the scene.
