Kenyan security forces kill coastal-massacres suspects

Kenya’s Interior Ministry on Thursday said security forces have killed five people suspected of involvement in bloody attacks on two coastal towns that left 65 people dead.

In a tweet posted on its official Twitter account, the ministry said “five suspected attackers shot dead while escaping, three AK 47 guns and several ammunitions recovered”.

It said the incident took place in Lamu County, where the two attacks took place.

Somali Islamist group al Shabaab has claimed responsibility for the attacks in the town of Mpeketoni on Sunday night and the nearby village Poromoko on Tuesday morning. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has denied that, instead attributing the bloodshed to his rivals and calling it “politically motivated ethnic violence against the Kenyan community”.

He said on Tuesday, “This, therefore, was not an al Shabaab terrorist attack. Evidence indicates local political networks were involved in the planning and execution of the heinous crime. This also played into the opportunist network of other criminal gangs.”

There are fears that Kenyatta’s comments could further stoke political tensions in a country where allegiances generally run along ethnic lines. But analysts say that, by blaming the attacks on domestic rivals, Kenyatta could ease pressure on his government, which has been strongly criticised about its handling of security and the threat from Somali-linked militants.

Kenyatta, an ethnic Kikuyu, appeared to direct his comments at his opponent and main presidential challenger in last year’s election, Raila Odinga, an ethnic Luo, who returned to Kenya in May after a long period abroad, although the president did not mention him by name.

In a Monday statement condemning the Mpeketoni attack, Odinga said, “This is not time for blame games... We must as leaders and as a nation rally together to respond to this serious national tragedy.”

An upsurge in violence

In the attack on Mpeketoni, near the popular tourist attraction of Lamu town, gunmen killed 49 people by targeting football fans watching a World Cup match in a television hall as well as two hotels, a police post and a bank. Barely 24 hours later, attackers then raided the nearby Poromoko village, going from house to house killing people and ordering residents to recite an Islamic creed.

Kenya has blamed al Shabaab for a spate of gun and bomb attacks in recent months.

The country also holds al Shabaab responsible for last year’s massacre in Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall in which 67 people were killed.

Al Shabaab has said its attacks are intended to punish Kenya for sending troops to Somalia to confront its Islamist fighters. Kenya has previously said it would keep its troops in Somalia.

But violence between different ethnic groups is not uncommon in Kenya either. Tribes of Somali origin and other ethnic groups have in the past fought over land and other issues, though that has mostly occurred in Kenya’s lawless northern border area.

After the 2007 presidential vote in Kenya, ethnic tensions erupted into violence that killed about 1,200 people.