Police in Mwingi on Wednesday night spent close to three hours combing the along Mwingi-Thika highway after receiving reports that a Garissa-bound bus had been hijacked. The team, which comprised of the Mwingi OCPD Simon Birir, Mwingi Central AP boss Abdirahaman Dima among other senior officers, patrolled the area around Kavaini market, about 15km from Mwingi town.

It later emerged that the phone call that had been made to the police alerting them on the hijacking incident was a hoax. Tension was high when the same information was picked by a vernacular radio stationcausing panic. Dima said he got the information from one of his officers. "I received the information from one of my officers who heard it over a local vernacular FM station. I immediately assembled my team and we rushed there," Dima said.

The OCPD had arrived at the scene earlier after receiving a call. Accompanied by curious residents, the police combed the area to no success. On the same day, an unidentified person called the police claiming that he had heard two Somali men plotting to bomb the town. Police were deployed in the town to beef up security. Dima said it was important for the residents to be alert in the wake of terror attacks. "We will treat any such information with seriousness and act on it quickly. It is good for people to be concerned," Dima said.