The Kenyan officials will take part in an intensive 12-week counter-terrorism training course at the FBI Academy in the US state of Virginia, the State Department has said following President Uhuru Kenyatta's meeting with President Donald Trump at White House last week.
“The investigators will be trained and equipped to investigate all terrorism matters deemed of significant importance to Kenya’s National Security Council,” the US side noted on Monday.
Upon completion of the course, the Kenyan officers will return home, where they will be assisted by an FBI Special Agent mentor, the announcement added.
The counter-terrorism training course will be the first US-funded Joint Terrorism Task Force to be located outside the United States.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a partner in this initiative to build the investigative capacity of a country “on the frontlines of terrorism,” the State Department said.
This latest counter-terrorism comes in the wake of increased terror attacks in Kenya by Al-Qaeda linked terror group, Al shabab.
Last month, the Somalia based terror group stormed Manda Bay airfield, a military base that hosts U.S. and Kenyan counter-terrorism forces, in Lamu killing three U.S. personnel in a daring dawn attack that lasted around four hours.
In a statement later, al-Shabab claimed it had destroyed seven aircraft and three military vehicles, without providing other details. It also published pictures of masked gunmen standing next to an aircraft in flames, aljazeera reported.
The attackers also destroyed two planes, two US helicopters and multiple US military vehicles during their assault.
