Gunmen kill at least 29 people in Kenya coastal raids

Gunmen have killed at least 29 people in raids on two coastal areas of Kenya, officials in Nairobi said. The assaults were the latest in a series of attacks claimed by Somali armed group Al-Shabab, which has vowed to drive Kenyan forces out of Somalia – although police have casted doubt on their role in the most recent violence.

The first attack late Saturday killed nine people in the trading town of Hindi in Lamu County, the same district where gunmen killed 65 people last month, according to Kenya’s interior ministry. The second attack occurred further south in the Gamba area, where 20 people died.

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

Sheik Abdiasis abu Musab, spokesman for Al-Shabab's military operations, confirmed to Reuters in Mogadishu that the Somalia-based group was behind both attacks on Saturday night. He also said the group was responsible for the June raids in Lamu County.

However, in a news conference on initial findings, 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 a coastal separatist group called the Mombasa Republic Movement (MRC) – an entity different from Al-Shabab. She said investigations were ongoing.

The MRC swiftly denied any role. "The government should stop using us as a scapegoat," MRC Secretary General Randu Nzai Ruwa told Reuters by telephone.

Regardless of which group is responsible, Saturday's raids will hammer a tourist industry that has already been hit by a wave of violent attack. It will also deepen public frustrations about poor security in Kenya a day before a big opposition rally is planned for the capital.

Veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga has called for people to take off work to attend Monday’s rally in Nairobi. The government said public workers who stay away from work would face disciplinary action.

Odinga, defeated by Uhuru Kenyatta in last year's presidential election, has held a series of rallies over the past month criticizing the government over frequent rebel attacks, corruption, a slow economy and other issues.

Kenyatta has responded by blaming last month’s deadly attack in Lamu County on local politicians, stoking an already fierce row with his political opposition, which denied any role.

Religious leaders have urged Kenyans to avoid rallies that could deepen divisions in a nation already scarred by political and ethnic violence. Political allegiances in Kenya tend to follow ethnic lines.

Following the country’s 2007 presidential election, 1,200 people died in ethnic violence – over which Kenyatta still faces charges at The Hague for alleged crimes against humanity.

Al Jazeera and Reuters