Tourist shot in northern Kenya attack

Tourist shot in northern Kenya attack

GARISSA, Kenya | Fri Nov 4, 2011 10:21am EDT

(Reuters) - Gunmen killed the driver of a tourist vehicle and wounded a foreign tourist in northern Kenya on Friday, a senior police officer said, the latest security incident involving foreigners in the east African country.

"One of the tourists was shot. The vehicle rolled and his colleague sustained injuries," Eastern Province Police Commander Marcus Ochola told Reuters.

The attack took place north of Isiolo in an area with several game reserves and known for banditry. It is also an area where there have been frequent deadly clashes between pastoralists over scarce resources this year.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack.

"This incident is not related to the recent fighting between the pastoralists around Samburu. The tourist police and other security agents are pursuing the attackers," Ochola said.

It is the third attack on foreign tourists in Kenya since the start of September. A British man was killed and his wife abducted from a beach resort in northern Kenyan by Somali gunmen on September 11.

A French woman was kidnapped from the northern resort town of Lamu three weeks later and taken to Somalia. She subsequently died. Two Spanish aid workers were kidnapped from the Dadaab refugee camp later in October and taken to Somalia.

The attacks on the tourists and aid workers were one of the reasons cited by Kenya for sending troops into its neighbour to fight Somalia's Islamist al Shabaab rebels.

(Reporting by Noor Ali and David Clarke; Editing by Richard Lough and Jon Hemming)



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