Kenya detains two over attacks stoking political tensions
Wed Jun 18, 2014 3:47pm GMT
* Somalia's al Shabaab rebels claimed latest attacks
* Kenyatta said local politics not Islamists to blame
* Rival Odinga calls Kenyatta's statements "unjustified" (Adds comment by
Red Cross, denial by coastal separatist group)
By Joseph Akwiri
MOMBASA, Kenya, June 18 (Reuters) - Police said they detained two men for
questioning on Wednesday linked to attacks this week along Kenya's coast
that killed about 65 people and fuelled a political row over security.
Islamist militants from neighbouring Somalia claimed responsibility for the
attacks and execution-style killings but Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta
has dismissed their account, saying the assaults were the work of his
political rivals.
Gunmen launched the first raid on town of Mpeketoni on Sunday night, killing
49 people, some of them gathered to watch World Cup soccer matches on
television. Just 24 hours later, they attacked a nearby village and torched
homes.
Survivors said they were held at gunpoint and told to prove they were
Muslims.
A senior police officer said two men linked to minibuses used by the
attackers had been detained. One man was the owner of a vehicle used and the
other was a driver of the other bus used in the assault.
"We are conducting very serious and comprehensive investigations," John
Miiri, appointed police chief in the area after his predecessor was sacked
over security failings in the attacks, told Reuters. "The two are being
interrogated."
The new attacks have fuelled public criticism of the government for failing
to do more to improve national security.
Many residents had fled into the nearby forests for safety during the
attack, leaving dozens missing. A Kenya Red Cross official said most had now
been located.
"We had 52 missing, but that number has gone down to nine," said Red Cross
official Wariko Waita.
SHIFTING BLAME
Kenya has blamed al Shabaab for a spate of gun and bomb attacks in recent
months and holds it responsible for a raid on Nairobi's Westgate shopping
mall in September last year in which 67 people were killed.
On Tuesday, Kenyatta shifted blame for the latest strikes to his domestic
political rivals, accusing them of "hate-mongering" and trying to stoke
ethnic tensions.
Kenyatta, an ethnic Kikuyu, did not offer any names, but his comments were
widely seen as referring to his rival in last year's presidential race,
Raila Odinga, a Luo who recently returned from abroad and has held a series
of rallies that have charged the political atmosphere.
"The statement was unfortunate and unjustified for several reasons," Odinga
said on Wednesday in his response to the president's remarks. "More
importantly it is likely to compromise the investigations."
Al Shabaab has said its operations are aimed at pushing Kenya to withdraw
its troops from Somalia, something Kenya has said it will not do.
The Mombasa Republic Council, a coastal separatist movement, also said it
had nothing to do with the attacks after Kenyatta's remarks about the
involvement of "local political networks".
"Our agenda is not and has never been to kill innocent people," Randu Nzai,
the MRC secretary-general, told Reuters in Mombasa. "We are pursuing legal
means to solve our grievances, and people should stop dragging us into this
mud." (Additional reporting by Humphrey Malalo in Nairobi; Editing by Edmund
Blair and Tom Heneghan)