Somali Militiamen Shot

April 1, 2005

Four Somalia militiamen were yesterday morning shot dead by police after they crossed into Kenya and killed a woman and badly injured four other people in Mandera district.

The militiamen were part of a gang that had at 5.30am invaded Laffey trading centre in Elwak division and launched an unprovoked attack, police commissioner Mohamed Ali said.

They had shot dead a woman and critically injured three others and a child, he said.

"Security officers responded promptly and caught up with the gunmen as they sneaked back into Somalia," he said.

The attack, together with other recent cases of insecurity in parts of Kwale, drew MPs' anger. Speaking in Parliament yesterday, they criticised the Government's handling of security and demanded immediate action.

They included Kajiado Central's Joseph Nkaissery (Kanu), Maj Marsden Madoka (Kanu), Mr Abdi Sasura (Saku, Kanu) and Mandera Central's Billow Kerrow (Kanu)

They cited recent flare-ups in Maai Mahiu, Mandera, Marsabit, Moyale, Tigania, Trans Nzoia and Kwale as examples of the Government's inability to tackle violence.

Speaking at the police headquarters in Nairobi as he gave an overview of the security situation, Maj-Gen Ali said: "Our officers shot dead four of the attackers, but the rest disappeared. We don't know how many raiders were involved in the attack."

The injured women and the child were admitted to the Mandera district hospital.

The motive for the attack was not known, police said.

The latest attack is a major setback to peace initiatives at the frontier region initiated by the provincial administration and Internal Security minister John Michuki.

The minister toured the district on March 20 and gave the residents 21 days to turn in illegal guns. Some 23 people had been killed at El-golicha village in Elwak over a long-standing feud between the Murule and the Garre clans.

Police records show that more than 60 people have been shot dead in Mandera since December 18, but the killers are still at large.

In a recent interview with the Nation, Maj-Gen Ali said he had deployed more than 240 officers in Elwak to curb violence.

"We have aircraft and investigators in place. We have some people, not in custody, who are helping with investigations and the tracking down of the attackers," he said.

Asked by reporters why the police criminal intelligence unit had failed to get wind of the latest attack, he said: "We have no problem in gathering intelligence."

But he said police would be ruthless in dealing with the raiders.

At the same time, the police chief said investigations into the clandestine training of youths at a forest camp in Kwale district would not be disrupted by Foreign Affairs minister Ali Mwakwere's comments.

"Police functions are guided by the law. We cannot be diverted from our duty of investigating crime and promoting security," he said.

Maj-Gen Ali said the special team in Kwale, led by deputy CID director Peter Kavila, had been professional. "We have not heard any complaints from the public. We would be more worried if the complaints were coming from the public," he said.

Preliminary investigations showed that the youths' mission was to raid police stations, he said, adding that they would go on and all those involved would be brought to book.

Mr Mwakwere said on Monday that the story of a gang at Kwale's Mulungunipa forest was a creation of the police.

Addressing a leaders' meeting at Iyeje primary school in his Matuga constituency, the minister said the reports were a creation of people behind the clashes in Maai Mahiu, Trans Nzoia and Mandera who wanted to depict Coast province "as being on fire".

"They are doing this so that the Kibaki administration may fall," Mr Mwakwere said after elders raised queries about the continued landlessness of the Coast people, 40 years after independence.

They urged him to ensure the return of the land they had lost over the years.

Copyright © 2005 The Nation.