Top officers moved in bid to bring calm

Senior Provincial Administration officials and top police officers in Lamu were Tuesday transferred as drastic steps were taken to store calm in trouble-hit Mpeketoni where 48 people were killed.
The residents were in shock hours after the Mpeketoni raid, attackers struck Maporomokoni on Monday night where another 10 people were executed.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph ole Lenku said the Lamu County Commissioner Stephen Ikua, police commander Leonard Omollo and other senior officers had been replaced immediately.
Mr Lenku said the officers were reshuffled for failing to execute their mandate.

He said: “We have effected the changes because they did not perform their duties as required,” he said at Lake Kenyatta Primary School in Mpeketoni,

Attempts by the Cabinet Secretary to assure the irate residents that the government was working around the clock to ensure that there was adequate security fell on deaf ears.
Although he said that they were pursuing the criminals, locals responded with murmurs of disapproval.

The public paralysed transport when they barricaded all roads heading to Mpeketoni and the Lamu-Mombasa one.
They searched some vehicles as they sought to establish the identity of the occupants and their mission.

According to a resident, Mr Charles Kamau, police were slow in responding to the Sunday night attack, saying they waited for more than six hours. He said there was no security reinforcement after the incident, resulting in the second attack.

On Tuesday, contingents of General Service Unit, Regular and Administration Policemen, who were deployed, could be seen doing patrols.

In Maporomokoni, the Nation saw the officers combing the bushes in search of the gunmen who were suspected to be still in the locality.

However, their efforts were being hampered by impassable roads, most of which were waterlogged. It was a race against time as they struggled to push their vehicles, which got stuck in mud.
At around 3pm a team of journalists from the Nation Media Group, KTN and other media houses were also stranded but managed to find their way.

Different theories have come up in connection with the terrorist raids. Some residents said they suspected they were politically motivated while others said they were related to land problems. Another group of people strongly felt that the Al-Shabaab militants were behind them.

Somali origin
Some reports indicated that most of the raiders were of Somali origin who spoke in Kiswahili while others communicated in English.

In the Mpeketoni incident, victims were shot in the head with such precision that there were hardly any survivors.
The attackers burnt buildings housing banks, hotels and other businesses.

Security officers who talked to the Nation, on condition that they were not named, said initial investigations indicated that the slaughter was carried out by “a well-organised, heavily armed and well-trained gunmen.

“It is still early to establish if it was Al-Shabaab or another group because investigations are still going on,” said the police officer.