Al Shabaab militants invade Lamu village, lecture residents for hours

Lamu, Kenya: Suspected Al Shabaab militants invaded a village in Basuba area of the volatile Lamu County and took over several mosques and held residents hostage on Saturday.

A local resident told The Standard that no less than 90 militants armed with rockets and Kalashnikov rifles swarmed over the villages as local Muslims were preparing for maghrib or evening prayers and herded them into a local square.

"Some of them spoke in fluent Swahili with Mombasa accents," said a terrified resident who alleged further that "although they did not hurt anyone we feared that police or the military would attack while they were still here."

The resident, who cannot be named, said the militants who appeared not to be in a hurry spoke in turns, justifying Al Shabaab's call to jihad and urging local Muslims to fight the Kenyan State, adding they also waved Al Shabaab's islamist flags.

Then as fast as they came, the militants who wore military uniform melted into the dense bushes and by Sunday, police had not visited the village.

Sunday evening Coast regional police coordinator Robert Kitur told The Standard that the police had received reports of heavily armed militiamen moving around Basuba village on Saturday evening.

Kitur also reported that among the armed militants were three people identified by local residents as caucasian men, fostering reports that there were still some foreign fighters with islamist groups in Lamu following the June 14 killing of British jihadist Thomas Evans Antony when militants raided Baure KDF camp.

"We received reports from local residents that about 20 heavily armed youths were sighted in Basuba village. The residents claimed that there were twenty caucasians among them but the armed people did not hurt anyone," according to Kitur who further said that "police are investigating the incident to determine the motive of these people."

Meanwhile there are reports that many residents of Basuba have fled the area to safer parts of the county for fear of a likely military offensive due to rising insecurity. They also lament that life is becoming difficult because private vehicles no longer ply routes in the increasingly insecure parts of Lamu.

Saturday's event was the second such audacious raid by the suspected Al Shabaab militia in the area within a month. Mid July, masked militants walked into villages in Basuba and conducted prayers to mark the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadhan, before slipping back into the bushes, without hurting anyone. The militants forced local Muslims to attend these prayers and listen to their incendiary speeches for hours.

On June 13 the militants also attacked two mosques in Mangai village in northern Lamu County, forced residents into a local square and exhorted them to join the militant group, shun secular education and rise against the Kenyan State.

On Sunday, the military and aid officials maintained an apparent coordinated silence over this matter, in what some analysts suggest is an attempt by the State to control the flow of information on the militants operations.