JASON STRAZIUSO
Associated Press
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya’s president on Sunday ordered all guns and attackers be turned over to authorities in a northern region after raiders ambushed and killed 22 police.
President Uhuru Kenyatta traveled to the country’s North Rift region a day after the slaughter of the police force.
“We will take firm action against those who killed security officers in this area. These criminals must pay for their heinous act,” Kenyatta told a gathering of elders.
Regional powerbrokers said the attackers mistook the police for an invading tribe. Tribal violence in northern Kenya, often over cattle, is common.
Kenyatta ordered the tribe to turn over those responsible for the attack immediately. The tribe asked that they be given two weeks to do so.
Leaders of the Pokot tribe asked the president for forgiveness and asked for help in solving a long running boundary dispute with the nearby Turkana people.
In another recent attack, on Oct. 25, armed bandits attacked two vehicles belonging to an advanced security team and killed three officers and two civilians.
In a second violent incident, a Kenyan military official says that troops shot and killed six machete-wielding attackers who tried to gain entry into a barracks on the coast.
Spokesman Col. David Obonyo said the gang of about 15 people tried to carry out the Sunday morning attack in Mombasa. Initially two attackers tried to attack a military guard with machetes, then troops opened fire.
One attacker was caught and arrested and is being investigated. Authorities estimate that eight escaped.
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