Nairobi (AFP) - Kenyan
President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday blamed "local political networks"
for the killings of dozens of people in two attacks in the coastal
region that have been claimed by Somalia's Shebab militants
"The attack in
Lamu was well-planned, orchestrated and politically-motivated ethnic
violence against a Kenyan community with the intention of profiling and
evicting them for political reasons," he said in a televised address to
the nation.
"This therefore
was not an al-Shebab attack. Evidence indicates that local political
networks were involved in the planning and execution of a heinous
crime," he said.
"This also
played into the opportunist network of other criminal gangs," he added,
without identifying the local groups he said were responsible.
The
president also said that intelligence on the Mpeketoni attack had been
made available to local security officers but that "unfortunately, the
officers did not act".
"Accordingly, all concerned officers have been suspended and will be charged immediately in a court of law," he added
His comments came even
though the Shebab said they were responsible for Sunday night's attack
on the town of Mpeketoni, in which around 50 people were killed, and
Monday night's attack on a nearby village that left 15 dead.
The
Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist group said the attacks were further
retaliation for Kenya's military presence in Somalia as well as the
Kenyan government's "brutal oppression" of Muslims.
"It
was our commandos who were taking care of things over the last two days
in the Lamu area, and they will continue to do so," a Shebab official
told AFP by telephone after Kenyatta's speech.
"We are fighting there because Kenyan troops are in our country and occupying parts if our nation."
The
Shebab had also claimed responsibility for last September's siege of
the Westgate shopping mall in the capital Nairobi, in which 67 people
were killed.
