Ruto meets Lamu leaders amid rising tension, insecurity

President William Ruto. [File, Standard]

President William Ruto met elected leaders from Lamu County to diffuse rising tension over land and representation between 'settlers' and locals.

Ruto reportedly asked the leaders to foster unity in the county that has since 2013 been hit by land and terror-related insecurity.

He said no leader would be allowed to incite the community.

Yesterday, Lamu Senator Joseph Githuku said the county has for years been hit by insecurity and it was high time leaders came together to preach peace.

"Cases of terrorism have resulted in catastrophic loss of property and human life, ultimately hindering peace between communities and religions in our beautiful counties," said Githuku.

He said the delegation to meet the president was led by Governor Isa Timamy, MPs and MCAs from Lamu.

The meeting took place as detectives probing hate crime linked to the recent murders in Lamu postponed the grilling of four well-known opinion sharpers in the county.

On Friday, Omar Sharif, Mohamed Mbwana, Abubakar Ahmed and Feiswal Miji stormed the offices of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) in Mombasa, demanding to know why they were summoned.

Their lawyer Abubakar Yusuf said the elders were initially summoned to appear before the Lamu County DCI but were later told to appear before the Coast Regional office on Wednesday only to be informed the summons had been cancelled even before they were questioned.

However, he said the elders still went to the regional DCI offices to confirm the cancellation of the summons in writing.

"The elders were first summoned to Lamu DCI headquarters and then to Mombasa regional headquarters. Today, the DCI cancelled the summons. The elders were not questioned. We are waiting for a letter cancelling the summons," Yusuf said.