A student who had been expelled from a high school in northern Kenya last week is suspected of returning Saturday with armed gunmen and killing six students and a guard in what appeared to be an act of revenge, officials said.
The shooting occurred early Saturday at a secondary school in Lokichogio, about 90 kilometers from the Kakuma refugee camp near the Kenya-South Sudan border.
The suspect, a refugee from South Sudan, had been suspended from the Lokichogio school for fighting. The suspect, whose age and name had not been released by late Saturday, was arrested after the incident.
Local media reported, however, that a mob stormed the station and lynched the suspect.
“The school was not attacked by bandits, but an errant student on expulsion for disciplinary cases,” Wanyama Musyambohe, a regional government official, told Reuters news agency.
Officials said the former student and two gunmen attacked the school while students were sleeping, killing six students and a guard, and injuring at least 18 others.
The Kenya Red Cross evacuated at least six students for treatment from the school’s remote location.
Kenya’s Kakuma refugee camp, located in Turkana County, is one of the largest in the world, and houses nearly 200,000 refugees, many from nearby South Sudan.
The Turkana region struggles with a proliferation of weapons from wars fought in nearby countries, including South Sudan and Somalia.
