Gunmen kidnap aid workers from Kenya camp, driver killed

By James Macharia

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Gunmen kidnapped four aid workers and killed a driver at Kenya's Dadaab refugee camp near the border with Somalia on Friday, in the first kidnapping of foreigners since Kenya sent troops into Somalia in October to try to crush Islamist militants.

The gunmen are suspected sympathizers of Somalia's al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab insurgents, regional deputy police chief Philip Ndolo, told Reuters.

In Somalia, al Shabaab said it was not aware of the attack.

"So far we are not aware about any aid workers kidnapped from Kenya's refugee camps," Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, the spokesman for al Shabaab's military operations, told Reuters.

Kenyan police said the four were nationals of Norway, Canada, Pakistan and the Philippines. A Kenyan driver in a second vehicle was killed during the attack.

They were working for the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and the group's secretary general, Elisabeth Rasmusson, was also in the convoy and was unharmed, the aid group said.

A Kenyan driver was shot in the attack had died of his injuries while being treated, Ndolo said. Two other Kenyans were also shot, another driver and a contractor for the NRC, he said.

Police and the military were now pursuing the kidnappers who drove towards the Kenya and Somalia border, police said.