A commemoration of the Kenya Defence Force (KDF) soldiers killed in the 2016 El Adde attack, took place on Monday in a low key ceremony at the 9^th Kenya riffles base at Moi barracks in Eldoret.

Only relatives of the fallen soldiers were allowed in the highly guarded military camp.

In January 17, 2016, Al-Shabaab ambushed a KDF base in El Adde, Somalia, leaving at least 63 soldiers dead, in an assault described as the worst in the military since Operation Linda Nchi was launched in 2011.

The Al-Shabaab reportedly used three vehicle-borne improvised devices (VBIED) commandeered by suicide bombers to attack both the KDF and the Somali National Army (SNA) camps.

Hostages

Several soldiers were also taken hostage (prisoners of war) by the terrorists and up to date, their whereabouts are unknown.

Two years later, questions still linger on what exactly transpired that fateful night as the government has never issued any official account surrounding the El Adde attack and the biggest question Kenyans have been asking is; just how many soldiers were killed that night and how many were taken as prisoners of war?

Al Shabaab Release Video on El Adde Attack

Three months after laying an ambush on KDF in the El Adde camp, Al Shabaab released a propaganda video of the attack.

In the 50 minute footage, the terrorists boasted of killing at least 100 soldiers. They showcased piles of military gear including vehicles, which they claimed to have seized from the KDF soldiers during the attack.

They went ahead to brandish national IDs of maimed soldiers, reading out their names with one of the terrorist boasting that the military uniform he donned and the rifle he held belonged to the soldier whose three names he pronounced in the video.

A captured soldier was also forced to plead with President Uhuru Kenyatta in the video to withdraw KDF from Somalia while another gave an account of how the attack took place.