Police seize 45 suspects over Lamu raids before Ruto deadline expires

The special security team sent to track down killer gangs in Lamu and Tana River has arrested 45 people.

Deputy Inspector-General of Police Samuel Arachi on Tuesday said among those in custody was a Lamu land owner said to be one of the people allegedly funding the raiders who have killed at least 87 people in four weeks.

But even as he announced the arrests, the Nation learnt that on Monday night, another group of raiders attacked a prison in Hindi area of Lamu and a conservancy a few kilometres away where they burnt down offices and a vehicle. Witnesses said the attackers were repulsed in the Hindi attack and that no one was killed in the raid on the Lamu Conservation Trust Camp.

Reports reaching the Nation late on Tuesday indicated that a Standard Seven pupil was among several people who were injured in a crackdown by General Service Unit and Administration Police officers.

The security personnel were among dozens of others involved in a daylong operation across villages in Lamu and Tana River counties.

The injured were being treated at the Garsen health centre on Tuesday evening.

Earlier in the day, Mr Arachi said the land owner suspected of funding raiders was being held in Malindi last evening and was likely to be taken to court on Wednesday.

Another suspect arrested in Boni forest on the border of Lamu and Tana River had gunshot wounds.

Those arrested between Sunday and Tuesday were taken to Gamba Police Station and later moved to other police stations.

Deputy President William Ruto on Sunday directed security chiefs in Lamu and Tana River to capture the killers “dead or alive” within 48 hours, failure to which they should quit their jobs.

“Tomorrow there will be more arrests. We want people to know the truth behind the attacks,” Mr Arachi said on Tuesday.

There has been a sense of desperation and hopelessness in Lamu as gangs continue terrorising residents while security agencies appeared helpless.

Witnesses have described the killers, who started their murderous spree on June 13, as a well-organised group.

They have been slitting the throats of their male victims or shooting them. In the case of the Hindi slaughter on Saturday night, the gang used pieces of cloth to tie their victims’ hands and cover their mouths.

Witnesses said the killers did not appear to be in a hurry and would take their time to chat and lecture relatives of victims and even demand meals in the homesteads they attacked.

And on Tuesday, Lamu Island residents woke up to find leaflets threatening more terror and deaths. The leaflets were signed by people claiming to be Al-Shabaab.  However, Mr Arachi told area residents to ignore them as they were meant “to scare people away”.

“We want to give the assurance that security for Lamu is tight and enough officers have been deployed there. We will deal with all the criminals including those spreading terror through leaflets,’’ he said.

However, residents have been in anguish arising from inability of the police to prevent the killings.

INVESTIGATIONS

Investigations by the Nation and interviews with families and neighbours of the victims indicated that the first security team arrived at the scene of Saturday night’s attack at around 7:30 am on Sunday.

The first to arrive was a small group of Administration Police officers, Hindi district officer Stanley Mutua and Chief Abdallah Shahasi.

The two administrators and the APs moved around Hindi Kibiboni and Maremande areas collecting names of the 11 victims.

Mrs Elizabeth Odipo, a survivor narrated her harrowing experience with the attackers who spared her but burnt her house.

She said the heavily armed gunmen stayed at her home for two hours narrating why they were on a killing spree.

“Each of them had a small bag on the back, a rifle on the right arm and a big knife on the left side of their waists,” she said of the attackers she described as youthful and bearded.