8 years ago
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Machete gang attack on Kenyan minister
A gang of youths brandishing machetes attacked a Kenyan
cabinet minister at a public meeting and killed his bodyguard before the
crowd beat three of the attackers to death, police said on Friday.
Fisheries Minister Amason Kingi was unharmed in the Thursday night
incident, which police blamed on a separatist group campaigning for the
secession of Kenya’s coastal strip.
“We believe these are the people who are coming from the Mombasa
Republican Council (MRC). We know they have bad intentions for this
region. We know that they are armed to engage in unlawful activities,”
Aggrey Adoli, the coastal region’s police chief, told reporters.
Two of the attackers escaped, Adoli said.
MRC spokesman Mohamed Mraja denied the allegation.
“The police are not telling the truth. We were never involved,” he told reporters.
“We know there are politicians who are competing for political seats
in the coming elections, and are even enemies with each other. They are
targeting to outdo one another using any means including sending of
militia to disrupt one another’s meetings. When this happens it is
blamed on MRC.”
Mraja’s group has unnerved investors in the region, heavily dependent
on tourism, by threatening to disrupt March elections if its demands
for secession are rejected by Kenyan authorities.
Last month more than 100 people were killed as tribes fought over land, adding to fears of serious unrest ahead of the polls.
Nearly a quarter of Kenyans expect a presidential vote in March to be
marred by post-election violence, an opinion poll showed on Friday.
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