Suspected Islamic Militants In Kenya Kills Over A Dozen, Abduct 12 Women

Suspected Islamist militants have killed at least 15 people – and abducted 12 women – in an overnight raid on a Kenyan coastal area.

The bodies  were discovered among the remains of torched houses in Majembeni and neighbouring Poromoko, which are on the Kenyan coast between Mombasa and the Somali border.

Al-Shabaab militants claimed responsibility for the overnight attack on their radio station Andalus, but said they had in fact murdered 20 people. Earlier this afternoon, BBC reported that  12 women were abducted.

Local residents said militants also entered a third village, Mapenya, overnight, burning several homes to the ground, according to Kenya’s Standard Digital.

One witness said armed men went door to door hours before dawn in Majembeni and the neighbouring Poromoko village, ordered people outside and made them recite the Islamic creed.

He said he did not see what happened to those that failed the test, but assumed they had been beaten or killed.

Police are continuing to search Majembeni and Poromoko for bodies and the death toll is expected to rise over the coming hours.

Kenya’s president Uhuru Kenyatta  however  said that despite al-Shabaab’s claims, ‘domestic political leaders’ were behind the massacres, not Islamic extremists.

His surprising allegations come despite witness testimonies to the contrary, and analysis by terror experts who say the method of killing is very much in the al-Shabaab style.

Mr Kenyatta blamed the attacks instead on ethnically-motivated violence inspired by local political leaders who are preaching the idea that some Kenyans are ‘less human’ than others.