Kenyan slaughter continues

Gunmen killed at least 29 people in raids on two coastal areas of Kenya, the latest in a series of attacks claimed by Somali Islamists who have vowed to drive Kenyan forces out of Somalia. However, police dispute their role.

The Interior Ministry said one attack killed nine in the trading town of Hindi in Lamu County, the same district where about 65 people were killed by gunmen last month. Another was further south in the Gamba area, where 20 died.

"They went around shooting at people indiscriminately," said Abdallah Shahasi, a senior official for the Hindi area, which lies near the old trading port of Lamu and Mpeketoni town, where gunmen launched raids in mid-June.

Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabab's military operations spokesman, said that the Somali group was behind both attacks on Saturday night. It had also said it was responsible for the June raids in Lamu County, around Mpeketoni.

But President Uhuru Kenyatta dismissed al-Shabab's claim last month and blamed local politicians, stoking an already fierce row with the opposition, which denied any role.

At a news conference, police deputy inspector-general Grace Kaindi said a blackboard, ripped out of a school, was found at a junction near Hindi with scrawling that could implicate the coastal separatist group, the Mombasa Republic Movement (MRC).

"At first we thought it was al-Shabab, but now it is turning out that it is MRC as they have put it there clearly," she said, adding other scribbled phrases backed opposition leader Raila Odinga.

But the MRC swiftly denied any role. "The government should stop using us as a scapegoat," said Randu Nzai Ruwa, the MRC secretary-general.

Al-Shabab, which attacked Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi last year, killing 67 people, said it had broken into the police station at Gamba and freed suspects from detention cells. A police source has corroborated that Gamba account, saying the number of those released was still being checked. Gamba lies in Tana River County, which neighbours Lamu County.