"Two aid workers of Spanish nationality have been kidnapped by the Shebab, they are working for MSF (Medecins Sans Frontieres)," regional police chief Leo Nyongesa told AFP.
Kenya has launched a search operation but the women are reported to have been taken towards the border with war-torn Somalia.
"Two women have been kidnapped from Ifo camp, and taken away by people we believe are from Somalia," said police spokesman Erick Kiraithe, who added that the women`s Kenyan driver was wounded.
"A driver who was taking them around was shot and seriously wounded before he was thrown out," he said.
"We have deployed a helicopter and a search operation is currently underway, but it is being hampered by heavy rains in the area," he added.
Another police official said the aid workers were taken in a four-wheel drive vehicle that raced off towards the Somali border.
In Madrid the foreign ministry said two Spanish logisticians "were abducted in Kenya at the Somali border. The Spanish embassy in Kenya is working on the case." It declined to name the women.
Kenya is still reeling from the kidnapping of a French and British national taken recently from coastal regions by Somali gunmen that dealt a blow to its key tourism sector.
Earlier this month, Frenchwoman Marie Dedieu was seized from her beachfront home in Kenya`s popular tourist destination of Lamu, and taken to Somalia.
Gunmen also captured British holidaymaker Judith Tebbutt from Lamu district and killed her husband before taking her back to the war-ravaged nation.
No demands have been made public by the gunmen for the release of the hostages.
Dadaab, the world`s largest refugee complex, is home to some 450,000 refugees, most of whom have come from Somalia, fleeing drought and war.
The exodus has been sparked by a a severe drought that has affected more than 13 million people Horn of Africa affected.
However, the drought has hit Somalia especially hard, with famine declared in southern regions by the UN.
The Al-Qaeda linked Shebab control much of southern Somalia, and recently fought heavy battles with local Somali militia backed by Kenyan military along the border areas, close to Dadaab.
A Kenyan driver working for the international aid organisation Care Kenya is still missing after he was abducted in September at gunpoint at the wheel of his vehicle from Hagadera camp in the Dabaab complex.
Kenyan authorities have said they boosted security along the border following the abductions from Lamu.
Lawless Somalia has had no effective government ever since it plunged into repeated rounds of bloody civil wars beginning in 1991, allowing a flourishing of piracy, militia armies and extremist rebels. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
