Kenya attacks: Morgue full, rotting corpses pose health risk in Mpeketoni

Mpeketoni, Lamu: As al-Shabab militants attacked the coastal town of Mpeketoni killing dozens within two days, Kenya has witnessed the highest death toll since Nairobi's Westgate shopping mall was raided by the terror group in November last year killing 68.

Health crisis is looming large over the coastal town with the only mortuary in Mpketoni choc-a-bloc with dead bodies as al Shabab militants attacked two villages on Monday night and set ablaze many houses, reported a local news site.

To avert the health danger due to rotting bodies, the authorities have set up a temporary morgue to enbalm the corpses. But given the increasing number of dead bodies, the task is tough and authorities are urging people to recognise their relatives to ease the congestion, added the report.

Having killed more than 65 people within two days near the coastal town of Mpeketoni, Somali terror outfit al-Shabab continued to unleash terror as 12 women were reportedly kidnapped on Tuesday. 

The aduction came on the heels of two consecutive attacks on villages near the coastal town of Mpeketoni within two days, claimed by al-Shabab that killed at least 15 people overnight and 48 people the day before, when Islamists attacked hotles and a police station. 

Claiming the attacks, the al-Shabab said it was in retaliation to the involvement of Kenyan troops in Somalia. 

Al-Shabab added that the attacks were in response to Kenya's "brutal oppression of Muslims in Kenya," including the killings of Muslim scholars in Mombasa. 

The terror outfit warned that the raid will continue "as you continue to invade our lands and oppress innocent Muslims." 

Despite the al-Shabab claim of carrying out the raid, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday blamed "local political networks" of staging the attacks. 

"This... was not an al-Shebab attack. Evidence indicates that local political networks were involved in the planning and execution of a heinous crime," the AFP quoted him as saying in a televised address to the nation. 

The back-to-back attacks underscore the weak security around the Lamu area, which lies just south of the Somali border. Lamu once attracted swarms of foreign visitors but its tourist sector has been suffering in recent years because of increasing violence.