Uhuru Kenyatta pays tribute to fallen KDF soldiers, vows vengeance

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta today vowed to destroy the militant group which launched a gruesome attack on a Kenyan army base in Somalia last week.

Kenyatta, who visited a Nairobi hospital to meet some of the soldiers injured in the attack said: “The Friday attack has only renewed our determination to destroy al Shabaab and all terrorist groups that threaten Kenya.

Every Kenyan must understand that this is a war that requires that we all be united as a nation and that we stand shoulder to shoulder to face the enemy of humanity, that we should not be deterred no matter the challenge that they try to push our way.”

Al Shabaab, which claimed responsibility and is aligned with al Qaeda, said its fighters killed more than 100 Kenyan soldiers when they overrun the base near the Kenyan border on January 15.

The Islamist militants claimed to have captured some Kenyan soldiers belonging to an African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia.

Armed forces chief General Samson Mwathethe said on Thursday that the al Shabaab head who engineered the attack is believed to have been killed in air raids by Kenyan warplanes.

Al Shabaab disputed the claim and went ahead to publish graphic images showing bullet-riddled bodies of dozens of Kenyan soldiers.