Mungatana, Bwanamake reject Tana River curfew

Acting Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i (Photo: Courtesy)

Local leaders have piled pressure on the Government to exclude the region from a dusk-to-dawn curfew.

Kenya Patriots Party governor candidate Danson Mungatana and Chama Cha Uzalendo senator candidate Maur Bwanamaka have opposed the curfew imposed after recent terrorist attacks in Lamu County.

They said the curfew was hurting the local economy and urged acting Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i to lift it. Speaking in Fanjua village in Kinakomba ward on Sunday, they said no part of the county had been affected by Al-Shabaab attacks so the 90-day curfew was unnecessary.

"As leaders of Tana River County, we oppose the imposition of a curfew in our county because all of us know that Al-Shabaab militants are in Boni Forest in Lamu County, not Tana River," said Mr Mungatana.

Mr Bwanamaka gave the Government seven days to withdraw the curfew failing which he would mobilise residents to disobey it.

"The curfew should have affected places adjacent to Lamu, not this far where we have not experienced any terrorist incidents," said Mungatana, a former MP for Garsen, adding he had personally petitioned President Uhuru Kenyatta over the matter.