- Mbwajumwali chief Mohamed Famau, 45, and Myabogi sublocation assistant chief Athman Shee, 43, murdered at midday
- Lamu county commissioner Irungu Macharia says their biggest lead revolved around drug barons in the region
Detectives in Lamu have revealed that drug barons were behind Wednesday’s murder of a chief and an assistant chief at Mbwajumwali village in Lamu East.
Mbwajumwali chief Mohamed Famau, 45, and Myabogi sublocation assistant chief Athman Shee, 43, were murdered in their office by unknown assailants at midday.
The two were accosted by two attackers wearing buibuis, an Islamic dress for women, and had their faces covered with veils. They slashed the administrators to death in what police have termed as a daring attack never witnessed before in the region.
Speaking on Thursday, Lamu county commissioner Irungu Macharia said their biggest lead revolved around a number of drug barons in the region.
He said investigations were underway and that police were closely following leads to arrests the perpetrators.
Macharia said the execution of the two in broad daylight was well-calculated.
The two were buried on Thursday as per Islamic tradition.
“Our number one suspects are drug barons here. We already have leads and we are pursuing them. We will still need members of the public to cooperate with us by volunteering any valuable information but I want to guarantee that we must get to the bottom of this,” Macharia said.
He appealed to civil society organizations and human rights bodies to join them in the quest to get to the bottom of the murders.
Hundreds of security officers drawn from the Kenya police, Administration Police and Kenya Navy have since been dispatched to Mbwajumwali and other areas in Lamu East to undertake investigations.
“We have officers on the ground pursuing the killers. We have mobilised adequate resources for that. The Kenya Navy is manning the Indian Ocean to ensure they don’t escape,”he said.
Meanwhile,Lamu leaders have condemned the cold-blooded murder of the two administrators.
Governor Fahim Twaha called on police to ensure they arrest the murderers.
“We condemn the murders in the strongest terms possible. We hope that the criminals will be caught and face the law. We also take this time to condole with the bereaved. What happened is just sickening,” he said.
Lamu politician Hassan Albeity called for cooperation from the community, police and leadership in ensuring the killings of government officials and locals is stopped.
In June 2016, Mbwajumwali senior chief Mohamed Shee Mohamed was hacked to death by unknown assailants while he was on his way to work.
In April, Nyumba Kumi official and Red Cross volunteer in Mbwajumwali, Amina Bakari, 30, was slashed to death by unknown assailants at around 11pm.
On October 5, the badly mutilated body of police constable Hesbon Anunda was discovered inside a mangrove forest in Mbwajumwali, three days after he went missing.