Sunday, July 06, 2014

Kenya: 22 Dead as Killer Gang Strikes Again in Lamu, Tana River
Family impacted by raids in Lamu and the Tana River areas in eastern
Kenya.
Kenya Nation

Armed raiders returned to haunt Lamu and Tana River counties where they killed at least 22 people in a murderous rampage on Saturday night.

“My husband and I managed to escape. They torched the house but I am lucky to be alive,” said Ms Josephine Odipo.

Al-Shabaab, the Somalia-based terrorist group, however, claimed responsibility in an interview with AFP.

In Hindi, Mr Ruto, who was in the company of Lamu Governor Issa Timamy and Tana River Governor Hussein Dado, walked from house to house consoling relatives of the victims. Mr Timamy is out on bail after being arrested and charged in connection with the Mpeketoni killings.

He, however, refused to speculate on the motive of the attacks, saying he preferred to await the outcome of investigations.

Armed raiders returned to haunt Lamu and Tana River counties where they killed at least 22 people in a murderous rampage on Saturday night.

The killings occurred just hours before Deputy President William Ruto was due to attend an inter-faiths prayer service at Mpeketoni in Lamu where 65 people were killed in the first of a wave of attacks last month.

Deputy Inspector General of Police Grace Kaindi Sunday said the prime suspects were members of the Mombasa Republican Council and that the motive of the attacks could be “political, religious or land issues”.

Al-Shabaab, the Somalia-based terrorist group, however, claimed responsibility in an interview with AFP.

“The attackers came back home safely to their base,” said Al Shabaab military spokesman Abdulaziz Abu Musab. According to him, the attackers had killed 10 people. However, Kenya Red Cross workers said they collected 13 bodies at Hindi and nine at Gamba, bringing the total to 22. Survivors said some of the attackers spoke in Somali and others in Kiswahili.

In what appeared to have been well-coordinated twin raids, the killers, who were armed with automatic rifles and machetes, pounced on a village in Hindi, Lamu West, killing 13 people including a 13-year old boy. Witnesses described the killers as youthful, moving in groups of between 10 and 15 people.

While one group was terrorising villagers in Hindi, another stormed Gamba Police Station in Tana Delta, where they shot dead nine people who included a policeman on duty, five suspects in a cell and three people said to have been occupants of a vehicle they had hijacked and travelled in to the station. The raiders also rescued a suspect believed to be one of the killers in the Mpeketoni attacks about four weeks ago.

The latest killings bore the same patterns as previous ones in Mpeketoni where some of the suspects were shot or had their throats slit with their hands tied to their backs.

Relatives of the victims and neighbours said the attackers, who spoke mainly in Somali, targeted non-Muslim men whom they bound with ropes before slitting their throats or shooting in cold blood.

Mr Ruto was touring the region for the first time since the Mpeketoni attacks and had been slated to attend a prayer service at 10am yesterday but changed his plans and instead visited the scene of the attacks.

In Hindi, Mr Ruto, who was in the company of Lamu Governor Issa Timamy and Tana River Governor Hussein Dado, walked from house to house consoling relatives of the victims. Mr Timamy is out on bail after being arrested and charged in connection with the Mpeketoni killings.

After listening to accounts of the survivors at Hindi, Mr Ruto then went to Gamba Police Station where he directed the Inspector General of Police, Mr David Kimaiyo, to capture the attackers “dead or alive”. He, however, refused to speculate on the motive of the attacks, saying he preferred to await the outcome of investigations.

He later held meetings with the two governors and the newly-posted Lamu County Commissioner Njenga Miiri and top security and administration officials. Later, the Deputy President directed security chiefs to arrest the killers within 48 hours or resign.

In the Hindi attack, one of the victims was Mr Stephen Gichohi, 56, who was burnt alive inside his house. His son, Mr Kenneth Mangara, was shot three times while running away from the attackers.

Mr Gichohi’s wife, Ms Prisca Wagothie, Sunday said she was removed from the house together with her two and a half month old daughter, Ann Njeri, before the house was set on fire.

“When my husband refused to get out of the house, they set the house on fire,” said Ms Wagothie.

Managed to escape

A kilometre and a half from the ashes of Ms Wagothie’s home, the Nation team found Mrs Elizabeth Odipo whose hut was also burnt. The house and shop of her last born daughter, Josephine Odipo, who lives a kilometre away, were also burnt. A neighbour only identified as Muigai was also killed within the homestead.

“My husband and I managed to escape. They torched the house but I am lucky to be alive,” said Ms Josephine Odipo.

Her elderly mother said the attackers spent about two hours talking to her in different languages and told her that they were on a revenge mission.

“They came knocking calling me by name: “Mama Odipo toka, Mama Odipo Toka,” she told the Nation. “They asked me if I spoke English, I said yes. They said to me ‘Your President Uhuru sent soldiers to our country to rape and kill our mothers and wives. We will not harm you but we will burn your house.”

The attackers took away her mobile phone and used it to makes calls.

“They spoke in Kisomali, but when a call for me came thorough, they responded in Kiswahili telling the caller not to worry and that they were the attackers and they were with me.”

She said the attackers numbered about 13, all of them bearded and in military uniform.

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