Kenya’s internal-security ministry imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in three districts it described as ‘dangerous and disturbed’, after violence including the beheading of nine people by suspected Islamist militants.
The curfew was imposed in the eastern counties of Lamu, Garissa and Tana River, acting Interior Secretary Fred Matiang’i said in a statement posted on the ministry’s Twitter account. Sixteen areas within the counties have been designated as dangerous, he said in a separate statement.
On July 7, attackers suspected to be members of the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab group attacked a village in Lamu and decapitated nine people. An unspecified number of other people are missing after the raid.
The three counties under curfew are close to the border with Somalia, where al-Shabaab has waged an insurgency against the government since 2006. Six years ago, Kenyan soldiers invaded southern Somalia to combat the militants, who had attacked aid workers and tourists in Kenya. The Kenyan troops now form part of a multinational force fighting the Islamists.
The curfew was imposed by Matiang’i hours after he was appointed as acting secretary to replace Joseph Ole Nkaissery, who died suddenly on Saturday, a month before the country is scheduled to hold presidential and other elections.
