KENYA: Fear and anger in Kenyan tourism destination of Lamu after second abduction

Record ID: 361456

  • Title: KENYA: Fear and anger in Kenyan tourism destination of Lamu after second abduction
  • Date: 3rd October 2011
  • Summary: CLOSE FRIEND OF KIDNAPPED WOMAN AND TOUR MANAGER, ABDUL ALIM, WALKING INTO HOTEL WITH HIS SON
  • Embargoed: 18th October 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya, Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Travel / Tourism
  • Reuters ID: LVAARI85IFXJWZQM7Y52J3UAYJJ7
  • Story Text: Tourists and local residents were fearful and angry on Sunday (October 02) after suspected armed Somali pirates kidnapped a second European tourist just 3 weeks after another violent incident on Kenya's northern coastline.
    The Lamu archipelago has long been one of Kenya's most luxurious holiday destinations.
    Its white sands, crystal clear waters and list of celebrity visitors has earned it a reputation for being an exclusive getaway for those who want to escape the usual holiday crowd.
    But yesterday's tragedy which followed another in early September, where gunmen attacked a couple at a camp resort in the district, killing a man and kidnapping his wife, risks harming Kenyan tourism which had been recovering from post-election violence and the global financial crisis.
    The latest kidnapping on the Lamu archipelago by gunmen with links to Somalia has heightened fears that organised criminal networks across the border are widening their reach.
    "I think that you don't want to at this juncture, at least until the situation settles, to go to some remote beach house where the security, although they say they have it, is still a little difficult. The police are not around," said Clair Lyall, a visiting Canadian tourist.
    France and Britain have already issued travel advisories to their citizens against all trips to the archipelago's palm-fringed islands and warned against sailing along Kenya's coast due to the high risk of pirates, underscoring the blow-back the key economic sector can expect.
    The U.N. special envoy to Somalia, Augustine Mahiga, has warned of a growing link between Somalia's pirates and rebels.
    The raid will intensify pressure on Kenya to beef up security along its porous frontier with Somalia and in the open waters off the Horn of Africa country.
    Kenya recently said defence of its territory would be uncompromising but lack of visible security structures worry many locals.
    "I have no gun, I have no bomb I have nothing. When I see someone with a gun what can I do? Either you run away, or you decide to die or you can say whatever they tell you to say," said the head of the local tour guide association, Abdullah Sultan.
    Hotel owners on the island say in some cases more than 60 percent of the bookings in the upcoming months have been cancelled by visitors who heard about the attack and are too scared to visit the area.
    It's a huge concern for locals, as many as 90 percent of whom depend on tourism in some way.
    Locals are furious that security in the Lamu archipelago is ineffective and the response to distress calls by security agents is deficient.
    "But now we see where the mistake is. As I said earlier, to have a navy without a boat is like to have a navy that is not around. The same thing for the police, when we called them at night they were trying to get a boat from Peponi or something like that. They have a boat but maybe they don't have any petrol or they have a boat but maybe they don't have a captain so these things they have to work more hard on," said a local tour operator, Abdul Alim.
    Kenya's minister of tourism yesterday issued a plea to foreign powers to resolve the insecurity in Somalia, seen by Western intelligence agencies as a fertile breeding ground for militant Islamists.
    According to witnesses, the gunmen grabbed the 66-year-old wheelchair-bound woman and carried her to a waiting boat.
    Later in the day Kenyan coastguards surrounded the kidnappers near the border with Somalia but the bandits fired into the air in an attempt to scare off the two boats and a circling aircraft before the kidnappers escaped into Somalia with their hostage.
    While the search for the abducted tourists persists, Lamu and other islands in the archipelago will continue to be in the lime light for the wrong reasons.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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