Kenya is to hunt down gunmen kidnappers

Kenyan forces will pursue gunmen accused of a spate of kidnappings of foreigners across the two nations’ border, the internal security minister said yesterday.

Branding Somalia’s Al-Qaeda inspired Al-Shebab rebels “the enemy”, George Saitoti said Kenya intended to track down the kidnappers whose raids on two beach resorts have dealt a major blow to Kenya’s tourism industry.

“Our territorial integrity is threatened with serious security threats of terrorism, we cannot allow this to happen at all,” said Saitoti.

“It means we are now going to pursue the enemy, who are the Al-Shebab, to wherever they will be, even in their country,” he told reporters. In just over the past month, a British woman and a French woman have been abducted from beach resorts, while two Spanish aid workers were seized from a refugee camp last Thursday.

Police have blamed the abductions on the Islamist Shebab, but experts say the kidnappings could also be the work of pirates, bandits or opportunistic criminal gangs.