Wednesday July 22, 2026
Garissa (AX) — Police in Kenya’s Garissa County are searching for two primary school pupils believed to have been taken across the Somalia border in a suspected al-Shabab recruitment operation.
The boys, aged 13 and 15, are pupils at Mzuri Primary School. They were reported missing after they did not return home from what investigators say was a carefully arranged collection from the school.
The case dates to July 5, when a man who introduced himself as the boys’ uncle went to the school and requested permission to take them out for a short time.
He told the head teacher that he intended to buy learning materials for the children. School officials allowed the boys to leave after seeing no immediate cause for concern.
Neither pupil was seen again at the school after that visit.
Their disappearance was not immediately detected, but relatives became worried when the boys also failed to return to the residence they shared with their grandmother.
After unsuccessful efforts to locate the children and their uncle, a family member filed a missing-person report at Garissa Police Station on July 8.
Detectives opened an inquiry and said the available evidence pointed to a premeditated operation.
Investigators found that the uncle had travelled from Mombasa to Garissa three days before the boys vanished and had been staying at a relative’s house.
Subsequent phone-tracking data placed him in Dhobley, a town in southern Somalia, fueling fears that the two children were moved across the border.
Security agencies believe the boys’ father, suspected of being an al-Shabab operative who escaped to Somalia in 2018, orchestrated the alleged abduction.
Investigators suspect he directed his brother — the boys’ uncle — to pick them up in Garissa and transport them into Somalia.
Authorities have further named the uncle as a person of interest in the Jan. 26 attack in Hulugho, Garissa County, which killed Boma Location Chief Abdufatah Mohamud and primary school teacher Stephen Musili.
Security officials warn that, unless recovered, the boys may face extremist indoctrination or militant training.
Search and recovery operations remain underway.
Kenya sent troops into Somalia in October 2011 under Operation Linda Nchi, a military campaign against al-Shabab launched after a series of cross-border kidnappings targeting foreign tourists and aid workers in Kenya.
Kenya Defence Forces personnel continue to maintain a substantial deployment in Somalia’s Jubbaland region through the African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia.
Kenyan troops operate as Sector II and are primarily stationed in Kismayo, including at the New Airport Main Operating Base.
