A UN vehicle from northern Kenya's Dadaab refugee complex was hijacked by suspected Somali Al- Shabaab militants early Wednesday, a government official said.

Fafi District Commissioner Geoffrey Taragon told Xinhua by phone that three militants fired at the driver of the Nissan patrol vehicle at 8:30 a.m. local time at the Hagadera camp near the border with Somalia, seriously injuring him before hijacking the vehicle.

"We have confirmed that the vehicle has been hijacked and driven away to Somalia. I wish we had air surveillance in, this could have assisted us in tacking it and recovering it," Taragon said.

Resource later informed that Kenyan police have recovered the UN vehicle.

Taragon said that the militants, who were on well calculated move, timed the UN vehicle registration number 62UN328K when it was awaiting for security to escort to the camp.

The government administrator further said that the militants seriously injured the driver who was only identified as Mutuku while his co-driver escaped uninjured.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Kenya spokesman Emmanuel Nyabera confirmed that one staff member was injured during the shootout and another escaped unhurt.

"The assailants later took the UNHCR vehicle but the police were later mobilized and recovered the vehicle," Nyabera told Xinhua by telephone.

He said the UN refugee agency was in the process of evacuating one of the staff members who was injured to Nairobi for specialized treatment.

"We have not established the circumstances surrounding the incident. We also don't know the identities of those behind the incident," Nyabera said.

Teragon said that it was still early to affirm the motive of the attack. "We have however launched investigation into the matter and hope to get to the bottom of it soon. Our police are in the meantime seriously pursuing the militants," he said.

He said the driver is currently admitted at the Dadaab district hospital.

According to a police officer based at the Hagadera police camp who was among the security personnel supposed to escort the vehicle, the militants shot at the driver and later ordered the two out of the vehicle.

"The militants later took control of the vehicle and drove it away. We only heard gunshots from a distance of where we were, about 10 meters away. We could not rush into the scene because we did not know the number of the attackers," said one of the police officers who declined to be identified.

There have been numerous car hijackings by suspected insurgents at the border with Somalia. On April 3, three explosions took place at Dadaab airstrip. No person was injured but the attack delayed humanitarian operations.

The militants have renewed threats of terror in Kenya following efforts by the Kenyan authorities to arrest all aliens in the country and isolate genuine refugees from people profiled by intelligence services as suspected terror carriers and cells.