Kenyan president changes security officials after al Shabaab kill 36
Tue Dec 2, 2014 3:22pm GMT
* Most quarry workers told to lie down and were shot
* Somali Islamists call those killed "Kenyan crusaders"
* Kenyatta changes police chief, interior minister (Adds comment by Mandera
governor)
By Edmund Blair and Edith Honan
NAIROBI, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Somali al Shabaab Islamist militants killed 36
non-Muslim workers at a quarry in northeast Kenya on Tuesday, prompting the
president to sweep out his top security officials to tackle a relentless
wave of violence.
Kenyans have grown increasingly critical of President Uhuru Kenyatta for
failing to do more to defend the nation from the incessant militant attacks,
which have killed well over 200 people since 2013.
Al Shabaab has claimed responsibility for much of the bloodshed and says it
will keep up the violence to persuade Kenya to pull its troops out of
neighbouring Somalia, where its forces have joined African troops battling
the militants.
In Tuesday's attack, gunmen crept up on dozens of workers sleeping in tents,
a resident said, in the same area near the Somali border where a bus was
hijacked just over a week ago and 28 passengers killed.
"The militia separated the Muslims, then ordered the non-Muslims to lie down
where they shot them in the head at close range," Hassan Duba, an elder at a
nearby village, said.
A witness said at least two of the victims were beheaded.
Public pressure had been mounting on Kenyatta to sack police chief David
Kimaiyo and Interior Minister Joseph ole Lenku since al Shabaab's attack on
Nairobi's Westgate shopping mall last year that killed 67 people and after
subsequent violence.
Addressing the nation, Kenyatta said he had accepted Kimaiyo's resignation
and nominated a new interior minister, Joseph Nkaissery, a retired Major
General, urging parliament to speedily approve his choice.
He called on opponents, who have criticised his handling of security policy,
to unite in fighting the militants. "Our bickering only emboldens the
enemy," the president said.
UNCOMPROMISING
As with past attacks, al Shabaab militants said they were punishing Kenya
for sending troops to join African peacekeepers battling the Islamists in
Somalia. In a statement, it put the death toll at 40 and called the victims
"Kenyan crusaders".
"We are uncompromising in our beliefs, relentless in our pursuit, ruthless
against the disbelievers and we will do whatever necessary to defend our
Muslim brethren suffering from Kenya's aggression," spokesman Ali Mohamud
Rage said.
Kenya's government and a witness said 36 people were killed. The government
cited survivors saying about 20 fighters attacked the quarry, about 15 km
(10 miles) from the town of Mandera. One person died in another attack on
the northern town of Wajir late on Monday.
Western diplomats say Kenya's security services, which receive support from
Britain, the United States and others, are hobbled by poor coordination.
"We need to look at this as a systematic failure, rather than as an
individual one," Mandera County Governor Ali Roba told Reuters of the latest
attack and called for an overhaul of Kenya's security operations "from the
grassroots up".
Government opponents say the troops in Somalia have not protected Kenya and
should be withdrawn. The government has repeatedly said it would not pull
the troops out.
"They were supposed to create a buffer between our countries and the chaos
on the other side. But it has not done that. So we are saying leave," Dennis
Onyango, a spokesman for opposition politician and former prime minister
Raila Odinga, said.
Al Shabaab have been driven out of several strongholds in Somalia by an
offensive by African Union and Somali troops this year, but analysts said it
would not prevent the group from carrying out guerrilla-style attacks or
striking abroad.
"This (latest attack) seems very much in line with al Shabaab strategy,"
said Cedric Barnes of the Crisis Group in Nairobi of the latest attack.
"It's partly a result of al Shabaab being squeezed in Somalia." (Additional
reporting by Joseph Akwiri in Mombasa, Duncan Miriri, James Macharia and
Drazen Jorgic in Nairobi and Feisal Omar in Mogadishu; Writing by Edmund
Blair; Editing by James Macharia)