At least 10 people were killed in Marsabit, in an attack by bandits who targeted two villages in simultaneous attacks.

Two of those killed were police officers, local administrators said of the incidents that occurred on Tuesday night in Jaldesa and Kukuto areas.

The first attack occurred in Kukuto area where three people were killed when armed bandits ambushed their vehicle on Tuesday night, before the 7 others including police officers were killed in Jaldesa in retaliatory attacks.

"We have ten people dead in total and these include the two police officers," a local administrator said and referred us to the County Police Headquarters for more details.

His information was corroborated by a senior police officer at Marsabit County Police Headquarters, who spoke to us off the record because he is not allowed to brief the media.

"We lost two officers and eight civilians," he said, "a major security operation is going on and we hope to get the attackers. It is a bandit attack."