Multi agency teams are interrogating 11 soldiers from Somali National Army who surrendered to Kenya at the Hulugho border.
The team wants to understand what motivated the SNA soldiers to surrender while armed.
They told the Kenyan team they defected because of harassment and discrimination by their bosses from the Somalia National Army.
The group was armed with rifles with more than 1,000 bullets when they surrendered on Sunday evening, witnesses and military officials said.
Locals had reported there was a group of Somali National Army headed for Garabey area in Kenya near the main border.
The soldiers were seeking refuge and looked emaciated then.
This prompted Kenya Defence Forces personnel and other multi-agencies to move to the area and found the defectors already sited and waiting for further instructions.
Some of the defectors were Kenyans, officials said.
According to officials, one of the defectors had an AK47 rifle with 30 bullets, another had a Rocket Propelled Grenade launcher and three pieces of warhead while the third individual was armed with a PKM with 267 bullets.
The fourth soldier had an AK47 rifle with 30 bullets, another had an AK47 with 120 bullets while the sixth soldier had a similar rifle with 120 bullets.
Officials said another soldier was armed with an AK47 rifle with 120 bullets and another one had a similar weapon with 30 bullets.
A ninth soldier was carrying an AK47 rifle with 60 bullets while the tenth one had a similar weapon and 46 bullets.
The last soldier who is a Kenyan aged 75 and a resident of Hulugho was not armed, officials said.
Sources said the Somali nationals will be taken back to Mogadishu while the Kenyans will be debriefed for further action.
The area where they were escaping from, which is in Jubaland has been experiencing clashes between local soldiers and those from SNA. This is over disputed elections that took place in the federal state.
On December 11, 2024, at least 300 SNA soldiers surrendered to Kenya after being overrun by Jubaland forces in brief clashes in Raaskambooni area near the main border.
The soldiers were disarmed by Kenyan troops after approaching the main border while escaping from a camp they had been staying.
They were later moved to Mogadishu with their arsenal.
More security officials were moved to the Kenya-Somalia border to address the crisis building out of the clashes, officials said.
Guard Drowns While Fetching Water From Quarry In Ongata Rongai
