Kenyan families flee coastal areas after gunmen attacks
Mon Jul 7, 2014 6:22pm GMT
By Joseph Akwiri
MOMBASA, Kenya, July 7 (Reuters) - About 500 families in the northern
coastal region of Kenya have fled to nearby camps or left the area after
gunmen killed 29 people over the weekend, Kenya Red Cross said, the latest
in a series of deadly attacks in Lamu County.
Gunmen attacked government offices, torched a church and executed men in two
small towns in Lamu County on Saturday night. About 65 people were killed in
two similar raids in June in Mpeketoni town and a nearby village, in the
same county.
Somali Islamist group al Shabaab has claimed responsibility for all four
attacks but the government has suggested local politicians were behind them.
The exodus of people from their homes highlights a lack of confidence in the
government's ability to halt the upswing in assaults on the coast and
protect settlements.
Wariko Waita, spokeswoman for the Kenya Red Cross, said her agency was still
assessing needs of the 500 families.
"Obviously many need medication, food, water, warm clothing like blankets,
and counseling," she said.
"Some are coming to our temporarily established camps while others have
decided to leave the area completely for safety, and have gone to their
family and friends outside the area," she added.
Lamu County police chief Ephantus Kariuki said the attack could have been
prompted by disputes between rival ethnic groups fighting for resources on
the coast.
Long-standing land disputes have fuelled tensions between traditional
coastal communities, President Uhuru Kenyatta's Kikuyu group, who mostly
come from up country, and others. Rivalries between ethnic groups over land
are common elsewhere in Kenya as well.
But diplomats and analysts say al Shabaab may have still had a role, even if
local operators were also involved.
Jane Njeri, a Kikuyu from one of the towns attacked over the weekend, said
she spent Sunday night in a corridor of a nightclub where many other women
and children sheltered.
"For now we want to find a rescue camp and seek refuge there," she said. "My
husband was among those killed in the attacks on Saturday and we are very
scared."
One Kenyan military source said some families had turned up outside a
military base in Lamu county. "We cannot allow them into the camp because
our rules forbid it but we cannot send them away either," the officer told
Reuters.
Others like Patricia Wangare, a mother of two who has a farm near Mpeketoni,
said she felt threatened as a Kikuyu.
"It is very unsafe especially for us who are not natives," she said. "I have
witnessed more than 10 people I know closely die in the recent attacks and I
don't want to be the next victim." (Writing by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by
Edmund Blair and Ralph Boulton)