Gunmen killed at least 29 people in raids on two coastal areas of Kenya, the latest in a series of attacks claimed by Somali militants who have vowed to drive Kenyan forces out of Somalia, although a police officer cast doubt on their role.
The Interior Ministry said one attack killed nine in the trading town of Hindi in Lamu County, the same district where about 65 people were killed by gunmen last month. Another was further south in the Gamba area, where 20 died.
“They went around shooting at people and villages indiscriminately,” said Abdallah Shahasi, a senior official for the Hindi area, which lies near the old trading port of Lamu and Mpeketoni town, where gunmen launched raids in mid-June.
Sheikh Abdiasis abu Musab, spokesman for Al Shabaab’s military operations, said in Mogadishu that the Somalia-based group was behind both attacks on Saturday night. It had also said it was responsible for the June raids in Lamu County, around Mpeketoni.
But President Uhuru Kenyatta dismissed Al Shabaab’s claim last month and blamed local politicians, stoking an already fierce row with the opposition, which denied any role.
Regardless of who is blamed this time, Saturday’s raids will hammer an already beleaguered tourist industry that has been hit by a wave of militant attacks and will deepen public frustrations about poor security in Kenya a day before a big opposition rally is planned for the capital.
In a news conference on initial findings, police deputy inspector-general Grace Kaindi said a blackboard, ripped out of a school, was found at a junction near Hindi with scrawling that could implicate the coastal separatist group, the Mombasa Republic Movement (MRC). She said investigations were ongoing.
“At first we thought it was Al Shabaab, but now it is turning out that it is MRC as they have put it there clearly,” she said, adding that other slogans appeared to back opposition leader Raila Odinga.
She said scribbled phrases included “MRC - You are sleeping,” “Muslims your land is being grabbed”, “Raila is adequate” and “Uhuru down”.
The MRC swiftly denied any role. “The government should stop using us as a scapegoat,” Randu Nzai Ruwa, the MRC Secretary General, told Reuters by telephone. 
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