Kenya has cited recent attacks and abductions of foreigners as a reason for last month's incursion into Somalia [AFP]

Gunmen have attacked a safari vehicle in a north Kenyan game reserve, killing the Kenyan driver and wounding a Swiss tourist, according to local police.

Friday's incident in the Shaba National Reserve, 300 kilometres north of Nairobi, the capital, comes with the country watchful following several attacks and abductions targeting tourists and aid workers near Kenya's border with Somalia.

A policeman told the AFP news agency that two groups had carried out the attack.

"The information we have is that the (first group of) attackers came from the forest and opened fire at the vehicle; it sped off and another group a few metres away, also from the forest, shot at it, fatally wounding the driver," he said.

The Swiss embassy in Nairobi said that one female Swiss citizen was wounded and was receiving medical care. Another Swiss national, a male, was not injured.

Marcus Ochola, a police commander, said the injured woman had sustained gunshot wounds and that a manhunt for the perpetrators of the attack was under way.

The previous attacks, taking place near the Somali border in the last two months, left two dead and three Western Europeans abducted and taken across the border into Somalia.

A British man was killed and his wife abducted from a beach resort in northern Kenya on Sept. 11. The gunmen fled to Somalia where the woman is still being held hostage.

A French woman was kidnapped nearby in the Lamu archipelago three weeks later and taken to Somalia. She subsequently died. Two Spanish aid workers were snatched from the Dadaab refugee camp later in October and also abducted across the border.

Those attacks were cited by Nairobi as one of the reasons it sent troops into Somalia last month to pursue al-Shabab fighters which it blamed for the abductions.