Leaders inciting violence in Lamu may be barred from elections, Matiangi says » Capital News

NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 7- Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi says leaders found inciting communities in Lamu will be prosecuted, and has warned they could be barred from taking part in elections.

Matiangi said the government was considering recommending to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to bar leaders found guilty of inciting violence.

“We have been paying very close attention to issues in Lamu. We are determined to ensure the ugly spectra of violence on a scale that we have regrettably witnessed in the past years do not recur. Politics will not be allowed to divide and even cause deaths among our people in this country,” Matiangi said during a meeting with local leaders in office Friday, “the government will prosecute leaders and recommend to IEBC that they be barred from contesting in future elections.”

Friday’s meeting follows the killing of 7 people earlier this week, in what police blamed on land disputes in parts of Lamu.

The government has already declared a night curfew in Mukunumbi, Witu, Mpeketoni and Hindi all considered hotspot areas where a security operation is underway.

Eight suspects were arrested over the Monday and Tuesday attack which was initially thought to be linked to Al Shabaab.

The Friday meeting which brought together leaders who included Governor Fahim Twaha, Senator Anwar Loitiptip, Woman Representative Ruweida Obbo and Lamu West MP Stanley Muthama resolved to urgently form a leadership forum comprising of elected and non-elected opinion shapers in the county.

The agenda of the forum will be to seek solutions to issues fueling insecurity and conflicts in the cosmopolitan county ahead of a planned field visit to the county by senior government and security officials next week.

On his part, Governor Twaha attributed the latest attacks to the general election claiming unnamed politicians planned to benefit from the displacement of residents who are not deemed as indigenous to the area.

“The truth is most of the elected leaders in the county won by very thin margins and some people reason the best way to alter future election results is to ensure members of certain communities fail to vote by displacing them,” he said.

The rest of the leaders urged the government to prioritize the issuance of title deeds in the country to redress contested land ownership and to ensure more local youths are employed in government projects in the region.