Men injured during Tana River clashes get treatment. PHOTO: Red Cross
NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 22 – A former GSU officer is among 56 people arrested over the Tana killings that left 41 Kenyans dead and scores others severely injured.
Coast Provincial Police Officer Aggrey Adoli said on Saturday that the officer was arrested over suspicions of being involved in the gruesome attacks.
Tension in the remote area remained high on Saturday morning with irate Kipao villagers burning the bodies of nine attackers, who were among those killed in the raid.
Kenya Red Cross Society Communications Manager Nelly Muluka confirmed to Capital FM News that the death toll was 41, with 35 others suffering serious injuries including machete cuts.
“If we talk about lives lost we are talking about bodies we’ve literally counted. When we talk about casualties, these are people we have handled using our ambulances,” she confirmed.
“We have been on the ground and we are the first in and the last out.”
Muluka further observed that most of those whose lives had been cut short were men and children although women were not also spared.
She added that the attacks had greatly hindered the reconciliation works that had begun with most people going back to the camps.
“Right from the first attacks we begun trying to reconcile them; we had even started trying to resettle them and were rebuilding the homes. But now you see tension building up; people are afraid and they don’t trust each other,” she noted.
She also said that the injured had been transferred to Malindi General Hospital for further treatment, while the Red Cross would continue providing humanitarian assistance as needed.
Muslims for Human Rights (MUHURI) has at the same time called for the resignation of the Internal Security Minister Katoo Ole Metito accusing him of sleeping on the job.
The attacks and counterattacks have been going on with the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) recording the incidents witnessed in the region, between August 14 and September 11, as 29 days of terror.
Over 100 Kenyans were killed over this period and some 19, 979 others were displaced.
The KNCHR also said in its report at the time that several local businessmen and villagers were behind the chilling murders.
And although the KNCHR declined to give journalists the exact number of those mentioned in its report, Commissioner Anne Munyiva said that they would be questioned for whatever role they played.
“It will be very difficult to give out numbers because I would actually be disclosing the exact number of people in our list and at this point I cannot do that. And I do not want to give an approximate number; I prefer specific figures but I cannot share them,” she insisted.
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