Saturday, October 11, 2014
NAIROBI, Kenya, – Security forces are pursuing suspected Al Shabaab militias who kidnapped five Kenyans in Kiunga, Lamu County on Friday.
Police spokeswoman Zipporah Mboroki said that land and air surveillance was underway.
“We are doing everything to bring them back…we are doing both land patrols and air surveillance,” she told Capital FM News.
Lamu County Commissioner Miiri Njenga says heavily armed militant hijacked two land cruisers ferrying Miraa within Kiunga area in Lamu East.
Njenga on Friday told journalists the five were drivers and loaders.
A team of security officers comprising Kenya Defence Forces and police was deployed to pursue the attackers.
“We are pursuing the gunmen who managed to hijack two vehicles and their occupants. We believe they are Al-Shabaab members,” he stated.
Lamu County is still on a 6pm to 6am curfew following rising insecurity that has claimed many lives and left property destroyed.
The dusk-to-dawn curfew will remain in force until October 23, according to Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo.
Kimaiyo also directed that Boni and adjacent forests remain prohibited areas saying any person found there will be dealt with firmly as per the law.
Armed gunmen blamed for the killing of nearly 100 people in Lamu two months ago had taken refuge in the vast forest and the military was deployed to flush them out.
The gunmen haven been ambushing motorists and killing people indiscriminately.
Previously, Lamu had been hit by a series of attacks since mid-June which had fuelled divisions in the coastal region blamed on radicalisation, ethnic tensions and land disputes.
Somalia’s Al-Qaeda linked Al Shabaab have claimed responsibility for some of the attacks, saying they were in retaliation of the continued presence of Kenya’s military in their lawless country.
However, police and government officials say local politics is to blame.