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.

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Just as the Kenya mourned the sudden death of Interior Minister Joseph Ole Nkaiserry yesterday morning, suspected Al Shabaab fighters had beheaded nine men in an overnight assault on a village in the Kenyan coastal district of Lamu, police said, days after the armed group killed three police officers in an attack on a nearby village.

A witness, who asked not to be named, confirmed the death toll.

“They raided Jima and Pandanguo villages and killed nine men. They were slaughtered like chickens, using knives,” said the witness.

Kenya’s Interior Ministry announced late on Saturday that curfew was imposed in three districts following the attack.

It said in a tweet that the 12-hour curfew, from 6:30pm (1530 GMT), affects parts of Lamu, Garissa and Tana River and is to be in place for the next three months.

In a televised address on Saturday morning following the death in hospital of Kenya’s Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery, President Uhuru Kenyatta spoke of ‘an unfortunate incident this morning, which we are assessing’.

Appointing Education Minister Fred Matiangi as acting security minister, Kenyatta promised there would be “no vacuum in securing our country”.

President Uhuru Kenyatta sought to reassure Kenyans when mentioning the latest killings in a speech earlier on Saturday.

“We have had an unfortunate incident this morning that we are currently assessing and addressing,” he said.

Earlier in the week, three police officers were killed in an attack on a police post in Lamu, blamed on the Al Qaeda -linked al-Shabab group.

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The Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) announced in Kinshasa that it was impossible to organize elections this year in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

“It is impossible to organize the elections in 2017,” the President of the election supervising body, Corneille Nangaa said during a meeting with a delegation of the International Organization of the Francophonie (OIF).

However, he promised to assess the situation with the Government and the National Follow-up Council of the Political Agreement (CNSA), before making any ‘extension decision’.

The political agreement signed on December 31, 2016 between the Government and the Opposition, under the mediation of the country’s Catholic bishops stipulated that the national and provincial, presidential and legislative elections should be organized ‘before the end of 2017’.

DRC President Joseph Kabila is under pressure to relinquish power after his term of office expired late last year.

He however, held on to power, promising to organize elections this year and step down next year.

But in a June interview with German weekly Del Spiegel in Berlin Kabila ‘swallowed’ his words and said he ‘never promised anything’, in regard to holding elections and his stepping down.

And, in February this year his budget Minister Pierre Kangudia had said the DRC could not raise the US$1.8 billion needed to conduct elections in Africa’s second biggest country, which has a population of about 70 million people.

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The Kenyan Cabinet Secretary of the Interior Major General Joseph Kasaine Ole Nkaiserry, has died.

According to a statement by Joseph Kinyua, Kenya’s Chief of Staff and Head of Public Service, the 68-year old Maj. Gen. Nkaiserry, who once served as Kenya’s High Commissioner to Uganda, died a few hours after he was admitted to Karen Hospital for a medical check-up.

‘It is with deep sorrow and shock that we announce the sudden passing on of Interior CS retired General Joseph Nkaissery. Gen. Nkaissery passed on at Karen Hospital in Nairobi a few hours after being admitted for a check-up. The country to be updated as more information becomes available,’ the statement by Kinyua indicates.

Meanwhile, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has said the country will remain secure despite the death of Maj. Gen. Nkaiserry.

“There shall be no vacuum in securing our country”President Kenyatta, before appointing  Dr. Fred Matian’gi to head the security docket in an acting capacity.

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