Al-Shabaab on Monday claimed responsibility for the deadly attack in Mpeketoni.
The
militants, who burnt down 12 houses and 20 vehicles, said the raid was
in retaliation of the killing of Muslim clerics in Mombasa.
The
terrorists made the claim in a post in their official Twitter account
and mentioned Muslim preacher Abubakar Shariff Ahmed alias Makaburi who
was shot dead on April 1.
Police
described the attackers as an “unknown number of gunmen” who carried
out the atrocities from about 9 pm, and went on for three hours, before
escaping. No arrests have been made.
A senior security
official told the Nation that all indications point to a massacre that
was wholly conceived in Kenya. He said that initial intelligence showed
that the motive was “political.”
Two high level
security meetings were held at the Interior ministry headquarters at
Harambee House and State House during which the theory was brought up
and discussed at length.
President Kenyatta then ordered security chiefs to move to Mombasa to gather more evidence.
'RADICAL' MEASURES
The
source said “a series of actions,” would follow in government response
to the attack, adding that the measures would be “radical.”
Without
explaining further he added: “You will soon (hear) people complaining
so loudly but those are decisions that have to be made.”
He
went on to say, there was “a big plan” to destabilise the government
and those behind it were “financially backed” by foreigners.
The
official further said that the weapons used in the attack were smuggled
in from Somalia, where Kenya Defence Forces’ since its incursion in
2011 has uprooted Al-Shabaab from areas that it previously controlled.
He said the border is porous and firearms used for other criminal activities were brought into Kenya through the same routes.
A
police officer and a reservist were among the people killed. Interior
Cabinet Secretary Joseph Ole Lenku a press conference on Monday to warn
inciters.
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