Nairobi - Kenya will not pull troops out from Somalia until security is
restored, Prime Minister Raila Odinga said Monday, a day after 17 people
died in the worst attack in a decade that he blamed on Somali Islamists.
Speaking in the eastern Kenyan garrison town of Garissa, where masked gunmen
on Sunday hurled grenades into two churches before firing guns into the
congregation, Odinga offered a defiant message to the al-Qaeda linked
al-Shabaab.
"Surrender is not an option for us, because if we leave Somalia, anarchy
will set in which will spill over the borders," Odinga told reporters.
"Kenya will stand together even as al-Shabaab acts in desperation...
Al-Shabaab are reacting to the progress made by our forces in Somalia. We
shall stand united and in solidarity."
Kenya has suffered a spate of gun, grenade and bomb attacks since sending
troops into southern Somalia last October to target Shabaab rebels fighting
to overthrow the weak UN-backed government in the Horn of Africa state.
However, the well organised and co-ordinated attacks appear to mark a
scaling up from previous smaller attacks, which have often been simply
grenades hurled into bars or bus stations.
The attacks in Garissa were the deadliest since an al-Qaeda-claimed bombing
of an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa in 2002, in which 18 people died.
Critical condition
Observers fear that insurgents could copy tactics used in Nigeria, which has
suffered a string of almost weekly attacks on church services in recent
months in which dozens have been killed.
The Vatican on Sunday condemned the killings, noting attacks on people "in
their place of worship has become a method, believed to be particularly
efficient, of spreading hatred and fear".
Odinga voiced concern that the Shabaab, who profess allegiance to al-Qaeda
"could link up with other terrorist groups like Boko Haram in Nigeria",
although he gave no further details.
Kenya Red Cross said seven people remained in a critical condition in
hospital following the attacks, which wounded dozens more.
The Shabaab have not claimed responsibility for the attack, although the
pro-Shabaab Twitter site Al-Kataib boasted of a "successful operation in
Garissa".
Meanwhile four foreign aid workers abducted on Friday from Kenya's Dadaab
refugee camp complex - the world's largest and home to about 465 000 mainly
Somalis fleeing their lawless nation - were released safely on Monday in
Somalia.
