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At least 11 people killed in coastal Kenya in militia attack

27 September 2012 22:32 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. At least 11 people have been killed in retaliation attack in Kaloleni district of Kenya’s Coastal region on Thursday, barely a month after some 118 people were killed in Tana Delta district, APA reports referring Xinhua.

Regional police commander, Aggrey Adoli confirmed the incident, saying those killed were militia belongs to Mombasa Republic Council (MRC) who had attacked a village and killed an elder.

"We had 11 people killed and several crude weapons recovered from Mnagowadola forest situated where they were undertaking rituals," Adoli told Xinhua by telephone on Thursday.

"We have paraphernalia and crude weapons which we suspect were used to conduct secret ritual in the forest," the regional police commander added. He said a major manhunt has been launched to arrest the raiders.

The country also faces challenges related to resurgence of militias such as the Mombasa Republican Council (MRC) and the potential threats they posed to the forthcoming elections and the internal risks to stability posed by Kenya’s external war on the Al-Shabaab in Somalia.

The analysts say the intense ethnicisation of politics on the road to the 2013 elections is exacting its toll on pre-election stability environment.

Adoli said some identity cards belonging to people from different parts of Coast province including Mombasa, Kilifi, Malindi and Kwale, were also recovered.

He said they are investigating if those killed belong to the Mombasa Republican Council group that has been agitating for coastal town to secede from Kenya.

Police told Xinhua that the militia was hiding in the forest when local people spotted them and tipped the police.

When police officers ambushed the forest a villager was killed and one police officers seriously injured. But the locals mobilized and managed to kill 10 militia, as some tried to escape using motorbikes but they were caught and butchered.

"We have deployed police officers to the area to ensure that the situation is restored back to normalcy. We also have four suspects in custody," Adoli said.

At least 118 deaths, including nine of policemen, in Tana River County began with an attack on Aug. 22 on the village of Riketa. That attack led to revenge attacks on Sept. 7, Sept. 10, and Sept. 11.

On Sept. 10, 38 members of the Ormo community were killed and at least 167 houses burned in Kilelengwani area. The attackers raided the school feeding programme stores at Kau Primary School.

The majority of the displaced are living in camps in the Tana Delta area, while some have migrated and are being hosted either in schools or by relatives in Malindi and Tana River districts.

More than 13,500 have been displaced and more than 30,000 people affected by the ethno-political clashes that have been ongoing in parts of Tana Delta for the last four weeks, starting on the night of Aug. 13, Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) said.