Kenya: Gunmen On Rampage Kill At Least 4 And Injure 11 In Mombasa City
By Staff Writer
Kenyan police have said that at least four people were killed and 11 others injured in a shooting spree by unknown gunmen on motorbike in the port city of Mombasa on Sunday night July 20.
Robert Kitur, Mombasa County police commander, said on Monday July 21 that two gunmen on a motorbike opened fire indiscriminately in the Soweto slum - Likoni on the outskirts of the port city.
“Some suspects...shot at people indiscriminately and as a result, four people have been killed and several others injured," said Kitur.
"They did not steal anything. They just shot," he added.
Mr Kitur said the police were pursuing the gunmen.
Peter Musyoki, a resident in Mombasa's Likoni area who witnessed the shooting, said two masked men toting a rifle and a pistol haphazardly shot at passersby.
"I saw two men dressed in black with a red ribbon around their heads," he said.
The gunmen also scattered leaflets explaining the attack was retribution for recent raid on Mpeketoni.
The leaflets distributed at Likoni, warning Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga and his community, could further fan an already tense political atmosphere in Kenya.
"This is a revenge for our brothers who were killed in Mpeketoni and you Luos, you won’t stay in peace, and you Raila if you have anything to do, just do, we are not fearing you at all," said one of the leaflets seen by
It is the latest in a spate of attacks linked to Somali militants.
Following the shooting, the armed men scattered leaflets in the area, which said the attack was retribution for last month's raid on the town of Mpeketoni in Lamu County.
Around 69 people were killed when gunmen attacked the town, and up to 100 in total have died in incidents in the coastal region since mid-June.
The attack came a day after gunmen attacked a bus and killed seven people near the town of Witu, Lamu County including two policemen who were called at the scene. Al-Qaeda linked Al-Shabab militants from Somalia claimed responsibility for that attack.
Al-Shabaab has vowed to carry out attacks in Kenya to avenge the deployment of Kenyan troops to Somalia to fight the militants
No one had claimed responsibility for Sunday's fatal shootings in Mombasa.
Al-Shabaab militants had claimed responsibility for many recent attacks, but the government of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta had also suggested local politicians were behind them instead.
Critics said finger-pointing from the president, who is an ethnic Kikuyu, was merely political point-scoring against Raila Odinga, an ethnic Luo who lost last year's election to Kenyatta.
Many from Kenyatta's Kikuyu community feel their kinsmen were targeted during the Mpeketoni attack.
The latest attack will further dent Kenya's beleaguered tourist industry after a wave of militant attacks and will deepen public frustrations about poor security.
Several Western governments, including the US and Britain, had issued travel warnings advising their citizens to avoid Mombasa.
Political allegiances in Kenya tend to follow ethnic lines and signs of inter-ethnic tensions are closely scrutinized. Disputed 2007 / 08 poll sparked weeks of ethnic bloodshed that left more than 1,200 people dead and crippled the economy.