The local chief who was kidnapped on Thursday by suspected Al Shabaab militants near the town of Mandera in northern Kenya, has been killed.
Muktar Maalim was kidnapped while travelling on a van to Mandera town when he was abducted.
According to media reports, the elders from the chief’s clan followed the trail of his abductors and managed to find him at a border town. They pleaded with the assailants to release him, but the assailants instead tied him to a tree and shot him in front of the clan elders and directed them to take his body, the Star newspaper reported on Friday.
Unconfirmed reports say that the chief was killed after the clan elders failed to raise a ransom of 4 million shillings ($42,500) the assailants demanded.
Maalim was abducted at a spot about five minutes drive from the Kenya-Somalia border. However, the other passengers in the bus he was travelling in were unharmed.
