Kenyan police officers walk past a bonfire used to barricade a main road after unidentified gunmen recently attacked the coastal Kenyan town of Mpeketoni (Reuters)
Kenyan police have arrested several suspects amid high political tension, in the wake of twin massacres on the coast, claimed by Somalia’s Islamist Shabab, but blamed by the president on local political networks.
The assault on the town of Mpeketoni late on Sunday and a nearby village the following night left at least 60 dead, the worst attacks since last September’s Shabab attack on the Westgate shopping mall in the capital in which 67 were killed.
“We have arrested several suspects,” police chief David Kimaiyo says on Wednesday, including the police officer in the town, the owner and driver of a vehicle used by the attackers, and a suspect accused of running fake Shabab social media accounts.
“More suspects including leaders are being interrogated,” Kimaiyo added.
Despite an immediate claim of responsibility for the latest carnage from the Al-Qaeda-linked Shabab, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta instead blamed “local political networks” along with an “opportunist network of other criminal gangs”.
The charges have been greeted by scepticism and confusion, but are also seen as raising the spectre of fresh ethnic violence inside Kenya.
“The emerging scenario points to a dangerous political situation that could easily escalate to violence if not well-managed,” the Daily Nation newspaper said in an editorial.
Although Kenyatta mentioned no names, Kenyan media said it was clear he was accusing opposition leader Raila Odinga, a former prime minister and Kenyatta’s main rival.
“The president was pointing the finger directly, even without mentioning names, at opposition leader Raila Odinga who… has led a series of high-profile political rallies to press demands for a national conference on problems afflicting Kenya,” the paper said.
The Star newspaper also said “the political temperature in Kenya has risen to dangerous levels” and called for Kenyatta and Odinga to meet.
“This extremism is leading Kenya to disaster; neither side appears willing to back down,” it added.
Bitter memories are still fresh in Kenya six years since contested 2007 elections escalated into ethnic conflict in which over 1200 people were killed, violence for which Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto face crimes against humanity charges at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
AFP