Saturday July 15, 2017
For the last few days a number of escalating attacks in Northeastern and Lamu have been blamed on al Shabaab.
They include the hijacking of a government Pajero carrying Public Works Principal Secretary Mariam el Maawy. Al Shabaab has ambushed and killed many troops and police since Kenya entered Somalia in 2011, but they have never gone for a bureaucrat of PS Maawy’s seniority. The PS was rescued by KDF and lived to tell the tale, despite being shot twice.
Something is very wrong somewhere in the massive security operation in the region, including Operation Linda Boni, which has seen the vast forest bombed by KDF in recent days.
Has this operation failed? Are the people conducting this operation not up to the task?
A massive failure of intelligence and the people in charge seems to have occurred. How did Shabaab know the PS would in the Milihoi area on the Lamu-Mpeketoni highway? What’s more, Shabaab, which has a versatile media/propaganda arm, has yet to lay claim to many of these raids.