One person was seriously injured and six houses torched after unknown attackers raided Kilimani village, Mokowe area, on Monday night as the insecurity situation in Lamu county escalated.

Majority of the residents had fled homes and taken cover in the forest when the attackers struck at around 11pm.

“We had left our homes and taken cover  in the forest for the night in fear that we would be attacked, only to return in the morning and find our houses torched,” said one of the residents.

“We have tried to ask for help from the concerned authorities but their response is too slow, this is the sixth insecurity incident in the past one week and we are concerned that our security agencies are dragging their feet,” protested another resident whose house was also torched during the Monday night incident.

The latest attack came as Interior Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho yesterday declared a massive security operation in the restive county owing to the continued sporadic attacks on civilians by unknown attackers.

“We have declared part of Lamu an operational area, the operation is active and we did that because we realised that there is a very well orchestrated programme by whoever the perpetrators are to continue sporadic attacks on innocent people in the county.

The operation going on there is massive and we expect in a very short time calm will return in Lamu because we have deployed every effort on earth to ensure that those criminal elements are repulsed,” he said.

The PS, who spoke at the port of Mombasa during the first day of inspection tour of government projects, said the insecurity challenges being experienced in the county will not affect operations of the Lamu port.

 “I know there are challenges of insecurity and as a result, we declared a bit of that area an operational area but it has nothing to do with Lamu port, it is the insecurity we know that has been ongoing and, therefore, it is farfetched to imagine that it would affect the operations at Lamu port,” said Kibicho.

So far police have arrested several suspects linked to the attacks on innocent citizens in the expansive county.

Last Friday, four General Service Unit (GSU) officers were killed in an attack at Milihoi, Lamu county, after their vehicle was hit by an explosive device at Nure Corner on the Lamu-Witu-Garsen road.

The PS appeared to blame the attacks on the al-Shabaab militants, warning that the security agencies were determined to wipe out the islamists.

Dusk to dawn curfew

Lamu West MP Stanley Muthama, Woman Rep Ruweida Mohamed and ither leaders asked security agencies to ensure adequate security for residents who have started fleeing their homes to the forest in fear of attacks at night.

“We have come together as leaders to condemn these attacks and we are asking the residents to cooperate with security agencies so that criminals can be eradicated among the community,” said Muthama.

On January 5, Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i declared a dusk-to-dawn curfew in the county following the killing of seven villagers by suspected al-Shabaabmilitants.