President Kenyatta to visit injured KDF soldiers

President Uhuru Kenyatta will Friday morning visit KDF soldiers who were injured in the El Adde attack in Somalia.

The soldiers are recuperating at the Moi Forces Memorial Hospital in Nairobi.

The President will visit and speak with families of the troops at the hospital.

He will later join families of the injured soldiers at the Moi Forces Memorial for a special remembrance event where he will make an address to the troops, their families, diplomats, and senior government officials.

Representatives of AMISOM troops contributing countries have also been invited to the event as well as representatives of the African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN).

President Kenyatta is expected to arrive at the hospital at around 9.30 AM.

The visit comes just a day after the Chief of Defence Forces General Samson Mwathethe said that the Al Shabaab commander who masterminded an assault on the Kenyan army base in Somalia last Friday is believed to have been killed in air raids by Kenyan warplanes.

Mwathethe said the strikes over the weekend targeted two Al Shabaab camps where the militants were hiding.

“It is believed Mwalimu Janow, the leader of (an Al Shabaab) brigade, who led this attack, was killed,”  said Mwathethe.

Mwathethe also refuted media reports that they had prior intelligence on the Al Shabaab attack at El Adde.

In his first official press briefing since the attack, Mwathethe said Al Shabaab may have received funding and logistical support from other international terrorist organisations to carry out the Friday, January 15 attack saying the weapons used were sophisticated.

No official figures were provided by the government on the number of casualties.

The KDF soldiers who were slain are part of AMISOM, a regional peacekeeping mission operated by the African Union with the approval of the United Nations.