Six people have been killed and homes torched in an attack Monday by suspected Al Shabaab militants in Kenya's coastal Lamu region that borders Somalia, a local government official said.

The Kitui game reserve is a lawless jungle teeming with everything from venomous snakes, dangerous outlaws to Al-Shabaab terrorists. It reportedly sees a flow of illegal migrants from Somalia, whose desperation sends them on perilous journeys to Nairobi across the wilderness. In this godforsaken smuggler’s route, anything goes.

For years, the United Nations secretary-general has called for the upholding and mainstreaming of human rights in counterterrorism, deeming it vital to maintaining U.N. and member States’ values and essential for counterterrorism to be effective. Yet from Kenya to the Philippines, China to El Salvador, in country after country, counterterrorism has increasingly been used to violate rights and entrench authoritarianism as much, if not more, than to protect and provide security. At the same time, in the two decades since 9/11, U.N. counterterrorism has emerged as a sprawling, highly influential domain of multilateral action and governance over security-related law and policy, from global programs to prevent violent extremism (PVE) to border controls and the regulation of online content.

Suspected Al Shabaab militants on Tuesday morning ambushed a water bowser ferrying water to the construction site of the Kenya-Somalia security border wall killing one person. The bowser which had two occupants on board; a driver and his assistant, ran over an Improvised Explosive Device-IED believed to have been planted in its way by the militants before exploding at around 7.30am.

Four students were killed during an attack by al Shabaab militants in Saretho area, Daadab subcounty on Tuesday. Security personnel including special forces managed to kill two al Shabaab militants and recovered two AK 47 riffles and two IEDs in the 1 am incident.