Somali Islamists not behind attacks, Uhuru

President Uhuru Kenyatta

Kenya’s president said on Tuesday that two days of attacks on the coast in which about 65 people were killed were planned by “local political networks”, dismissing claims by Somalia’s al Shabaab Islamist group that it was behind the assaults.

“The attack in Lamu was well planned, orchestrated and politically motivated ethnic violence against the Kenyan community,” President Uhuru Kenyatta told the nation in an address, referring to Lamu county where the attacks took place.

“This, therefore, was not an al Shabaab terrorist attack. Evidence indicates local political networks were involved in the planning and execution of the heinous crime. This also played into the opportunist network of other criminal gangs,” he said.

Source: Reuters