Why Lamu County has witnessed a string of attacks since 2014

Lamu County along Kenya’s Coastline is known for its tourism attraction cites, and of late as an increasingly attractive investment hub.

But Lamu County has another side that reflects how it bears the brunt of attacks from armed groups including Al-Shabaab that has carried out attacks to revenge the deployment of the Kenya Defense Forces (KDF) in neighboring Somalia in 2011.

The Sunday evening attack in Pandanguo, Lamu County, adds to the chain of attacks in the coastal county since 2014.

The attack comes just two years after an Al-Shabaab attack on January 5, 2020 which targeted a military base belonging to the United States of America (USA) in Manda.

In 2021, an attack in Kibaoni, Widho, Hindi, and Milihoi on the Garsen-Witu-Lamu road killed 13 people including four police officers.

A United Nations task force report in 2015 warned that Al-Shabaab offshoot Jaysh al-Ayman had the capacity to hold territory in areas north of Lamu, marking the group's rise in Lamu County.

In April 2015, the government announced an amnesty for young Kenyans who had gone to neighboring Somalia to train with the terror group, Al-Shabaab. The statement was made by the late Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery.

Pandanguo, the epicentre of the latest attack in Lamu County, is located 50 kilometers from Mpeketoni, where in 2014 an Al-Shabaab attack killed 47 people, this coming three years after Kenya deployed its forces in Southern Somalia, to fight Al-Shabaab which carried out frequent kidnappings, mainly targeting foreign tourists.

The Mpeketoni attack on June 15, 2014 which killed 47 people was followed by another attack on June 23 which killed 15 people.

Less than two weeks later, heavily armed men attacked Hindi and Gamba areas on July 5. A fortnight later on July 19, a bus plying the road between Lamu and Malindi was attacked and 30 people killed.

This prompted a series of government actions, and in September 2015, the government launched a multi-agency security operation code-named ‘Linda Boni’ to flush out Al-Shabaab militants who posed what security agencies called an existential threat to Kenya.

The attacks in Lamu County illustrated the armed group's changing strategy to entrench divisions among locals, along ethnic and religious lines and in the process localize issues that affected the people of Lamu, including land.

However, there are other factors that make Lamu County susceptible to attacks; its topography.

Boni Forest covers 21.4 per cent of the county land mass and proximity to Somalia has made it easy for extremist groups to find a safe haven in the vast forest including training areas.

The county’s land tenure is also another factor that has driven attacks in Lamu and which, according to security agencies, escalated violence in the county.

Lamu’s tourist attraction cites are also a contributing factor, a sector that was targeted by kidnappers taking off with foreign tourists into Boni Forest and to Somalia.

High profile infrastructure including the Lamu-Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia-Transport Corridor [LAPSSET], Kenya-United States of America base in Manda, Kenya Navy Manda Bay base, have also been targets for the armed group.