Kenyan police search for two boys feared taken to Somalia to join al-Shabab

Wednesday July 22, 2026

Garissa (HOL) — Kenyan police in Garissa County have launched a search for two schoolboys feared to have been lured across the border into Somalia to join al-Shabab.

The pupils, aged 13 and 15, attend Mzuri Primary School and were reported missing after failing to return home following what authorities believe was a planned pickup from school.

The incident began July 5, when a man claiming to be their uncle arrived at the school and asked to take the boys out briefly.

According to reports, the man told the head teacher he wanted to buy them learning materials. Permission was granted after school officials did not notice anything suspicious.

That was the last time the boys were seen at the school.

Their absence did not immediately raise alarm, but concern grew after relatives realized the children had also failed to return to the home where they lived with their grandmother.

A family member reported the disappearance at Garissa Police Station on July 8 after relatives were unable to trace the boys or their uncle.

Detectives launched investigations and said evidence suggested the movement had been carefully planned.

Investigators established that the uncle had traveled from Mombasa to Garissa three days before the disappearance and had been staying at a relative’s home.

Phone tracking later placed him in Dhobley, a town in southern Somalia, raising suspicion that the boys had been smuggled across the border.

Security agencies have identified the boys’ father, who they suspect is an al-Shabab operative who fled to Somalia in 2018, as the alleged mastermind behind the disappearance.

Investigators believe the father instructed his brother, the boys’ uncle, to collect the children from Garissa and take them into Somalia.

Authorities have also identified the uncle as a person of interest in the Jan. 26 attack in Hulugho, Garissa County, in which Boma Location Chief Abdufatah Mohamud and primary school teacher Stephen Musili were killed.

Security officials fear the two boys could be subjected to extremist indoctrination or militant training if they are not rescued.

Efforts to trace and recover the children are ongoing.

Kenya entered Somalia in October 2011 to fight al-Shabab in a military campaign known as Operation Linda Nchi, launched after a series of cross-border kidnappings of foreign tourists and aid workers in Kenya.

Kenya Defence Forces troops maintain a significant presence in Jubbaland, Somalia, under the African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia.

Operating as Sector II, Kenyan forces are based mainly in Kismayo, including at the New Airport Main Operating Base.