Kenya leader calls raids political

He cites local motive, but Somali group claims the 63 killings

Security forces walk Tuesday past a barricade of burning tires set up by villagers in Kibaoni outside Mpeketoni, Kenya, to protest recent killings and what they said was the government’s failure to provide them security.
Security forces walk Tuesday past a barricade of burning tires set up by villagers in Kibaoni outside Mpeketoni, Kenya, to protest recent killings and what they said was the government’s failure to provide them security.

NAIROBI, Kenya -- Kenya's president said Tuesday that assaults over two nights that killed an estimated 63 people were the work of "local political networks," and were not carried out by al-Shabab, a Somali extremist group that has claimed responsibility for the violence.

"The attack in Lamu was well planned, orchestrated and politically motivated ethnic violence against a Kenyan community," President Uhuru Kenyatta said in an address to the nation, referring to the county targeted by the violence. He did not provide evidence to support his assertion.

"This, therefore, was not an al-Shabab terrorist attack. Evidence indicates local political networks were involved in the planning and execution of the heinous attacks," he said. "This also played into the opportunist network of other criminal gangs."

Kenyatta said police officers who had been unable to prevent the attacks had been suspended and would be immediately charged in court.

"We are all hurting. Many of us are angry," he said, calling for the country to unite.

Some analysts questioned whether the attempt by Kenyatta to shift the blame from al-Shabab was a ploy to deflect attention from the government's failure to protect civilians from the spate of violence. Others saw the president's words as a reaction to mounting criticism by the main opposition party, which has rebuked the government for its apparent weakness in the face of attacks that many believe were orchestrated by the Islamic militant group based in neighboring Somalia.

Militants killed at least 15 people on Kenya's coast overnight into Tuesday, a day after they conducted a nighttime raid on the coast that left at least 48 people dead, news services reported.

Al-Shabab, a Somali extremist group, claimed responsibility for the two nights of slaughter, Reuters said. It quoted the group's spokesman for military operations, Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, who said the group had raided villages near Mpeketoni on Monday night and had killed as many as 20 people, a majority of whom were members of the police.

"Our operations in Kenya will continue," Reuters quoted him as saying.

Joseph Ole Lenku, the Cabinet secretary for the interior, said, "These attacks are unfortunate and the perpetrators must be held accountable." He said 15 people had died in the Tuesday attack. He was speaking from Mpeketoni, Reuters said, where he was greeted by residents angered by the government's inability to prevent the attacks.

The violence began Sunday evening as residents of Mpeketoni were watching the World Cup on television, officials said. After emerging from two vans, the militants targeted a police station and two hotels. The attackers took aside some of the men watching the matches at the Breeze View Hotel, and then shot and killed them in front of the women.

The gunmen went from house to house, seeking to determine whether the men they found were Muslim and spoke Somali, The Associated Press reported, citing witnesses. The men who did not provide satisfactory answers were killed, the AP reported.

The Kenyan military went into Somalia in 2011 as part of a drive to push back al-Shabab, but the group has since expanded its terrorist campaign inside Kenya.

Kenya's border with Somalia has proved vulnerable to infiltration by al-Shabab agents, even as Western officials have been encouraging Kenya to bolster security there. Nevertheless, militants continue to move back and forth.

On its Twitter account, al-Shabab on Monday claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack "as a retaliation for Muslim clerics killed in Mombasa," a port city on the Indian Ocean.

Lenku said at a news conference that "the perpetrators of this heinous act will be pursued to the full force of the law."

In September, four al-Shabab gunmen targeted an upscale mall in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, killing at least 67 people. In May, twin explosions hit a market area in central Nairobi, killing 10 people and injuring 76 others.

Kenyan authorities have sought to expand security and have questioned thousands of immigrants, refugees and members of Kenya's large Somali community in an effort to combat the militant threat. The violence has continued, however, and the government's tactics have been criticized by rights groups.

Western embassies in Kenya are now considering the withdrawal of personnel, and many Western diplomats and Kenyans fear that the Kenyan security services are too corrupt and disorganized to stop al-Shabab.

A Section on 06/18/2014

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