Kenyan President SacksSecurity Minister After Latest Al-Shabaab Attack

President Uhuru Kenyatta

Kenya’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta, has fired his security minister and accepted the resignation of his police chief, hours after Somali-based al- Shabaab militants killed 36 quarry workers in the north of the country.

The attack was the latest in a series of killings which the militants say are being carried out in retaliation for Kenya’s role in a UN-backed peacekeeping force in Somalia.

In an address to the nation, Kenyatta vowed that Kenyan troops would stay in Somalia until al-Shabaab was defeated. “We will not flinch or relent in the war against terrorism in our country and our region,” he said. “We shall continue to inflict painful casualties on these terrorists until we secure our country and region. Our stability and prosperity depends on a secure neighbourhood.”

He urged Kenyans to pull together. “The obvious intent is to create hostility and suspicion across ethnic and religious lines and to drive non-Muslims from certain parts of this country. The ultimate aim of this atrocious campaign is to establish an extremist caliphate in our region.”

Witnesses to the attack said militants surrounded a camp shortly after midnight, roused the sleeping workers and ordered those who could not prove they were Muslims to lie on the ground before shooting them.

The killings occurred in Koromey, Mandera County, about nine miles from the border with Somalia. The area is predominantly settled by Kenyan Somalis who are mainly Muslims.

Witnesses said the militants carried out at least two beheadings before fleeing.

It was the second such massacre in recent weeks.
On 22 November, al-Shabaab militants stopped passengers on a Nairobi-bound bus and killed the 28 Kenyans who could not recite the Muslim statement of faith known as the shahada .

Kenyatta called on Kenyan Muslims to join the government in battling the militants and addressing what he called a rising tide of radicalism in some parts of the country.

“Without a doubt, terrorists who claim to kill in the name of Allah are neither Muslims nor godly people, but deranged animals who have lost their souls and minds … A time has come for each and everyone of us to decide and choose. Are you on the side of an open, free, democratic Kenya which respects the rule of law, sanctity of life and freedom of worship, or do you stand with repressive, intolerant and murderous extremists?”

His government has faced criticism for its fumbling response to the security crisis, which has begun to affect the economy. Tour industry operators say arrivals are sharply down this year, continuing a downward spiral that began after al-Shabaab militants carried out a four-day siege of the Westgate mall in Nairobi in September 2013 that left 67 dead.

Kenyatta was subjected to withering censure in the local press after failing to cut short a trip to the United Arab Emirates following the bus attack.

Critics also say he has been slow to punish security chiefs for their poor performance in dealing with the attacks.

He has nominated a retired general, Joseph Nkaissery, to take up the role of security minister, replacing Joseph ole Lenku. A new police commissioner has not yet been appointed.

Earlier on Tuesday, masked gunmen raided a pub in Wajir, another town near the Somalia border, killing one customer and wounding three others.

Kenyan troops moved into Somalia in October 2011 to try to establish a buffer zone between the country and Kenya following a spate of cross-border attacks by al-Shabaab. But the mission appears to have backfired, with the militants able to cross the border at will and carry out attacks in Kenya. Some in Kenya blame corrupt police officers and immigration officials for allowing the militants across the border.

The religious element to the killings has raised concerns that it could stoke intercommunal tensions.

Abdullahi Sirat, vice-chair of the Supreme Council of Kenyan Muslims, urged citizens not to rise to al-Shabaab’s bait and take up arms against one another. “Kenyans should stand united to defeat al-Shabaab because they are also the number one enemies of Islam,” he said. “They are without religion and the Kenyan government should deal with them anywhere they may be hiding.”

Source:
Guardian Newspaper