Atentado en Kenia

Kenyan town terrified after al-Shabab attack
At least 48 people have been killed in a coastal town in Kenya, after gunmen opened fire on hotels and government buildings.
Last updated: 17 Jun 2014 07:02
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At least 48 people have been killed in a coastal town in Kenya, after gunmen opened fire on hotels and government buildings.

The Somali group, al-Shabab, has claimed responsibility.

Although the government has been trying to show resolve and reassure people, many of the people from the town of Mpekatoni are terrified.

Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh reports from Mpeketoni in Southeastern Kenya.

Al-Shabab claims deadly Kenya attack
Somalia-based group says attacks will continue, and tells tourists to stay away after assault in Mpeketoni kills 48.
Last updated: 17 Jun 2014 05:53
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The Somalia-based armed group al-Shabab has said it carried out a deadly attack on a town in Kenya in which 48 people were killed and several buildings burned down.

In a statement sent to Al Jazeera on Monday, the group said that the attacks would continue, adding that the Kenyan government was "fighting a losing war" and telling tourists to stay away.
Analysis with Al Jazeera's Hamza Mohamed

The group said they targeted the coastal town of Mpeketoni on Sunday because it was originally a Muslim area that was "invaded and occupied by Christian settlers".

"The prospect of peace and stability in Kenya will be but a distant mirage," the statement said. "Brace yourself for the depredations of war and that which you have with your hands sown."

Al Jazeera's Rawyah Rageh, reporting from Mpeketoni on Monday, said that residents were "shocked" about how the attack lasted for hours, with the gunmen fleeing with minimal resistance.

Sunday's attack in Kenya's tourist hub was the biggest since the deadly Westgate Mall raid last September in the capital Nairobi.

Kenya's Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku promised on Monday to pursue the attackers.

Attack on foreigners

Al Jazeera's Rageh said the attack did not target foreigners in Kenya.

"Attacks frequently carried out by al-Shabab target foreigners, but the latest one targeted locals in a small town," she said.

Kenya sent troops into Somalia in late 2011, after al-Shabab fighters carried out a series of raids on Kenyan soil.

Al-Shabab, which has fought a seven-year campaign to impose its interpretation of Islamic law inside Somalia, has said it wants to take revenge for Kenya's deployment of troops in the Horn of Africa nation.

"The Mpeketoni raid was carried out in response to Kenyan military's continued invasion and occupation of our Muslim lands and the massacre of innocent Muslims in Somalia."

Kenya has experienced a drop in tourist arrivals in recent months following gun and grenade attacks blamed on al-Shabab or its sympathisers.

In May, explosions in Nairobi and the coastal city of Mombasa led the UK, US, France and Australia to issue warnings about travel to Kenya, and at least 400 tourists cut short their holidays and left hotels along the Indian Ocean coast.

Kenya called the alerts "unfriendly", saying they would increase panic and play into the hands of those behind the assaults.
Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies

Kenya denies al-Shabab role in attacks
President Uhuru Kenyatta says assaults on coastal areas were planned by 'local political networks' and criminal gangs.
Last updated: 18 Jun 2014 06:11


Al-Shabab fighters claim they killed at least 15 people in a second night of attacks on Kenya's coast, but the country's president says the attacks were the work of "local political networks" and gangs.

The latest attack happened overnight on Tuesday in Pomoroko, a village located between the city of Mombasa and the Kenyan border with Somalia, where the armed group is based.

The attack come after 48 people were killed in Mpeketoni in the early hours of Sunday. Al-Shabab claimed they carried out the attack to punish the Kenyan government for sending troops to Somalia.

However, President Uhuru Kenyatta denied al-Shabab's role in the attacks, instead blaming what he called "local political networks" and criminal gangs.
Analysis: Al-Shabab's attacks in Kenya

"The attack in Lamu was well planned, orchestrated and politically motivated ethnic violence against the Kenyan community, with the intention of profiling and evicting them for political reasons," Kenyatta said on Tuesday.

"This therefore was not an al-Shabab terrorist attack, evidence indicates that local political networks were involved in the planning and execution of the heinous crime."

In an interview with Al Jazeera, opposition member and senator Anyang Nyong'o said that the security situation in Kenya was getting "very serious" and blamed Kenyatta's government for carrying out "reactive action" instead of "preventive" measures to stop the attacks.

He also dismissed an earlier statement linking the opposition to the attacks, saying the allegations were "extremely irresponsible."

'Fighting a losing war'

Sunday's assault in Mpeketoni, in Kenya's tourist hub, was the biggest since the deadly Westgate Mall raid last September in the capital Nairobi.

In a statement sent to Al Jazeera on Monday, al-Shabab said it would continue its campaign in East Africa's largest economy.

"The Mpeketoni raid was carried out in response to Kenyan military's continued invasion and occupation of our Muslim lands and the massacre of innocent Muslims in Somalia," it said.

The group said the Kenyan government was "fighting a losing war" and telling tourists to stay away.

Kenya sent troops into Somalia in late 2011, after al-Shabab fighters carried out a series of raids on Kenyan soil.

It has fought a seven-year campaign to impose its interpretation of Islamic law inside Somalia.

Al Jazeera's Rawyah Rageh, reporting from Mpeketoni, said residents were in fear that al-Shabab will carry out more attacks.

Kenya has experienced a drop in tourist arrivals in recent months following gun and grenade attacks blamed on al-Shabab or its sympathisers.
Source:
Agencies

Kenya coast attack suspects shot dead
Security forces shoot five suspected of attacks that killed 65 people, and recover AK-47 guns and ammunition.
Last updated: 19 Jun 2014 23:56

At least 65 people were killed in the attacks claimed by Somali rebel group al-Shabab [AFP]

Kenya's security forces have shot dead five people suspected of involvement in attacks on the coast this week that left at least 65 people dead, the Interior Ministry said.

"Five suspected attackers shot dead while escaping, three AK-47 guns and several ammunitions recovered," the Interior
Ministry said on Twitter on Thursday. He located the incident in Lamu County.

Somalia's al-Shabab rebel group claimed responsibility for this week's attacks that were 24 hours apart on the town of Mpeketoni and a nearby village.

President Uhuru Kenyatta dismissed the group's claim and accused his political rivals of being behind the attacks, saying they wanted to stoke ethnic tensions.

The opposition swiftly denied the charge, which risks deepening political divisions.

A Kenyan army source, who asked not to be named, confirmed five suspects were killed in a forested area during a combined operation involving the army and other security forces.

Kenya has faced a spate of gun and grenade attacks in recent months. The killings in Mpeketoni were the worst since al-Shabab gunmen stormed into Nairobi's Westgate shopping mall in September, leaving 67 people dead.

The government has faced mounting public anger at the rising insecurity and accusations it failed to do enough to protect
them.

Protesters detained

In the main port city of Mombasa on Thursday, police fired teargas and rubber bullets to disperse a demonstration about
poor security. Eight people were arrested and charged with unlawful assembly, and later released on bail.

The protest was organised by 27 rights groups.

"We have not done anything wrong by holding peaceful demonstrations for the sake of our country and we will still
have them, until the government restores security in the country," Phyllis Mwema, one of the organisers, told Reuters news agency.

Mwema said police had been properly notified of the protest, which had been organised to take place before the Mpeketoni attacks. Police said they were informed but had not given approval for fear it could be targeted by "criminals".

Police intervened to prevent protesters from reaching regional administrative offices.

"We are trying to ensure that we don't create situations that give evil-minded people an easy opportunity to execute
crime," Mombasa County Commissioner Nelson Marwa said, explaining the decision not to approve the protest.
Source:
Reuters

Kenya arrests suspects after twin attacks
Several suspects are arrested for role in twin raids in the coastal area that left over 60 people dead, officials say.
Last updated: 18 Jun 2014 13:40
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Kenyan authorities denied reports that several women were kidnapped during the attacks [EPA]

Kenyan police have arrested "several" suspects in connection with the twin attacks on the coastal town of Mpeketoni in which at least 60 people were killed, officials have said.

The assault on the town of Mpeketoni late on Sunday, and a nearby village the following night left at least 60 dead, were claimed by Somalia's al-Shabab but blamed by the president on local political networks.

"We have arrested several suspects in connection to Mpeketoni incident including the owner and driver of one the vehicles used by [the] attackers," Kenya's police chief David Kimaiyo said on Wednesday.

"More suspects including leaders are being interrogated."

Despite an immediate claim of responsibility for the latest attacks from al-Shabab, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta instead blamed "local political networks" along with an "opportunist network of other criminal gangs".

Also being held by police is "a suspect who was operating social media accounts purportedly used by al-Shabab to claim responsibility," Kimaiyo said.

Rebels repeat claims

Meanwhile, al-Shabab on Wednesday repeated claims that they were responsible for both the attacks.

"The attack in Mpeketoni was ordered by the mujahedeen high command to retaliate for Kenya's killing of Muslims in Somalia and Kenya. The Islamic fighters answered to that holy call," al-Shabab's military spokesman, Abdulaziz Abu Musab, said in a news conference broadcast by al-Shabab's radio.

According to the spokesman, the al-Shabab attackers "controlled the area of the battle zone for 10 hours" after entering on Sunday night before withdrawing.

He also said 20 people were killed in an attack the following night in a nearby village, although Kenyan officials said only nine people were killed.

Kenyan authorities also denied reports that several women were kidnapped during the attacks.

"There were no attacks involving women, and therefore those are false reports," Kimaiyo told the AFP news agency.

The Kenyan Red Cross, which has been collecting information on those reported missing, said it also had "no evidence" to substantiate the reports that women were kidnapped.
Source:
AFP

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2014/06/kenya-arrests-suspects-after-twin-attacks-2014618125046205140.html

Kenya Mpeketoni attack: Who is fooling who?
Beyond the politics, the blame game, the shenanigans – Kenyans continue to live in fear – nowhere seems safe anymore.
Last modified: 18 Jun 2014 19:29
Catherine Wambua-Soi
Follow @c_soi
Al Jazeera's East and Central Africa producer.

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Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta absolved al-Shabab from the Mpeketoni attack where at least sixty people died.

Al-Shabaab – the Somali Islamist fighter group - has claimed responsibility.

The President says investigations show that this is the work of a local political network.

"The attack in Lamu was well planned, orchestrated, and politically motivated ethnic violence against a Kenyan community, with the intention of profiling and evicting them for political reasons. This, therefore, was not an Al Shabab terrorist attack," said Kenyatta.

So, who is fooling who?

It's true that in Mpeketoni there are unresolved historical political and ethnic grievances.

Local Somalis and Oromos claim the area as their ancestral home.

Kenya's first President, Jomo Kenyatta, settled ethnic Kikuyus on the land in a post-independence land settlement scheme.

President Kenyatta's statement seems to suggest that some politicians are exploiting the simmering ethnic tension there to settle political scores.

Many of those who died in the attack came from the President's Kikuyu community.

While Kenyatta fell short of naming the politicians behind the attack, rhetoric from his ruling coalition member and supporters and the Interior cabinet secretary Joseph Ole Lenku is that the opposition Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) led by former Prime Minister Raila Odinga is to blamed for inciting the public and stoking ethnic tension around the country.

The coalition has been holding charged political rallies - calling for a national dialogue- saying that the country is on the brink of a crisis. CORD critics believe Odinga and group are creating the crisis.

The political rallies will culminate to a mega one on July 7 - a symbolic day. Back in 1990, twenty two Kenyans were killed during street protests agitating for the end of a single party rule by an authoritarian regime.

The current government feels that this sudden opposition burst is skewed towards heightening political temperatures, driving Kenya into a campaign mode, seventeen months since last general elections and that the aim is to destabilize the country.

The opposition coalition has rubbished this argument. Raila Odinga told me that the government is just trying to "pass the buck and look for a scapegoat to avoid embarrassment – that yet again it has been caught flat footed by al-Shabab.

Maybe the motive is political as the official statement reads.

But we cannot ignore the fact that al-Shabab has claimed responsibility – and judging by its history the group hardly ever claims what it has not done.

Some analysts counter that argument: One, Mutahi Ngunyi a veteran political affairs expert told me the group could be taking advantage and riding on the "glory" of Mpeketoni because it's a big attack - one that has given them the visibility and "credibility" as dangerous foe.

That the group is being given way too much prominence than deserved.

Be that as it may – many Kenyan's, at least those I talked to don't really care about t who did what, whose blaming who, who is admitting to what.

Here's what they care about.

Since 2011 when Kenya sent its troops to Somalia to fight off al-Shabab – there have been at least 66 documented attacks and almost 300 people have died across the country from these attacks.

The government seems unable or overwhelmed to deal with the security situation.

Beyond the politics, the blame game, the shenanigans – Kenyans continue to live in fear – nowhere seems safe anymore.

It's up to the president and his government to tackle insecurity and tame the fear across the nation by moving from being reactionary to being proactive in its counter-terrorism strategy.