Kenyan military join search for Briton kidnapped at beach resort

Somali pirates suspected of taking woman hostage after her husband was shot dead during robbery The Kenyan military has joined the search for a British woman who was kidnapped after gunmen shot dead her husband at a beach resort in the east African country. The Foreign Office , which has refused to release or confirm the couple’s names for fear of endangering the abducted woman, is continuing to call on her captors to release her. The two Britons, both thought to be in their 50s, were the only guests staying at the sprawling and secluded Kiwayu Safari Village, close to the Kenyan border with Somalia , when the attack happened in the early hours of Sunday morning. Kenyan police are not sure whether the raid was the work of pirates or the Somali Islamist insurgent group al-Shabaab . Shortly after midnight on Sunday, at least five gunmen arrived at the beach by speedboat and stormed the couple’s palm-thatched hut, thought to be the furthest from the hotel’s reception. After ordering the Britons to hand over their valuables, the attackers shot the husband and bundled his wife into a speedboat. She has not been seen since and her kidnappers have yet to make a ransom demand. Eric Kiraithe, a Kenyan police spokesman, said the police and the military were now combing the area. The beach, which is usually empty except for a scattering of guests, was swarming with helicopters, police officers and armed guards on Monday afternoon. Guards had been told not to let anyone into the crime scene or to speak to journalists without police permission. Many hotel owners and locals on nearby Lamu island said they had often thought that the resort – only an hour by boat from the Somali border – was vulnerable. “On Lamu, we have always known they were in a more risky position but we never thought an attack like this would happen,” said hotel owner Muhidin Athman. “It’s going to have a bad effect on everyone working in the area.” The search for the missing woman is being carried out by air, boat and road and has been widened to include a 300‑mile (500km) area along the coast and up to the border with Somalia. It has not yet stretched over the border into Somalia, an area described by the Kenyan authorities as lawless and under the control of militant Islamists. Kenyan police have mentioned both Somali pirates and Islamist terrorists as possible perpetrators but are not ruling out local bandits or robbers. Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere said it would have been very easy for the attackers to get into the couple’s hut because it had a cloth door. He told a press conference it was possible that the husband had “resisted”, which may have been why he was shot. He said that if the attackers were hoping for a ransom for the wife, it was likely they would get in contact. The FCO has deployed a consular team from the high commission in Nairobi and is working with the Kenyan authorities to secure the missing woman’s release. It has also repeated its warning against “all but essential travel to within 30km of Kenya’s border with Somalia” and reminded travellers that two western nuns and three aid workers were kidnapped in the area between November 2008 and July 2009.The Kiwayu Safari Village, which was opened in 1973, has taken its website offline . A brief statement reads: “Sorry the website is unavailable due to the tragic events. Our thoughts and prayers are with the affected family.” Kenya Africa Somalia Sam Jones guardian.co.uk

Posted by on September 12, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.