Seven people were on Thursday morning killed by armed gunmen in Garissa's Liboi division. The gang waylaid the five men and two women at 5.30am in Meleiley village as they were going to the mosque for morning prayers.

Garissa county commissioner Maalim Mohamed said the seven were shot dead by the gang believed to have been 20 in number. "We still don't know the motive of the attack but we have launched investigations into it," he said.

Local leaders who spoke to the Star on the phone said the bandits were all armed with guns.

"I had just entered the mosque when I heard gun shots. I immediately pipped through the window and saw a group of men armed with guns shooting indiscriminately," said Abdi Malik.

"They then walked casually into a nearby bush leaving the seven lifeless bodies behind." Mohamed said the two women may have been killed for raising alarm.

"The women were victims of circumstances.The information we have is that they tried to raise the alarm when the attackers struck," he said.

A contingent of security officers drawn from the GSU, regular and administration police from Dadaab have been deployed in Liboi to pursue the gunmen.

Recently, there have been many attacks in Kulan, 20km from the Kenya-Somalia border. A dozen of police officers and civilians have lost their lives in the attacks. The police say the attackers, whom they believe are al Shabaab members, hide in the Daadab Refugee Camp.