Kenya interior minister fired after massacre

President Kenyatta announces security shake -up after
another assault by armed Somali group al -Shabab that left
36 dead.
Uhuru Kenyatta, the Kenyan president , has dismissed his
interior minister and accepted early retirement for the head
of the police , just hours after Somalia' s armed group al -
Shabab said its fighters had killed at least 36 people at a
stone quarry in the northeastern city of Mandera .
In a televised address , Kenyatta on Tuesday pledged to
continue the fight against al - Shabab and announced a
security shake -up in which the interior minister , Joseph Ole
Lenko, was dismissed.
Kenyatta named an opposition politician and retired army
general , Joseph Nkaissery, to be the new interior minister ,
in charge of security.
At a news conference in the capital Nairobi, David
Kimaiyo, the police chief , announced he was stepping down
and that the president had accepted his early retirement .
The two men have been responsible for the east African
nation' s security , which has deteriorated amid a wave of
deadly attacks blamed on al -Shabab .
"My government has invested heavily in terms of increasing
recruitment of security personnel; improving their
welfare . . . Despite this progress , we also acknowledge some
weakness in our security architecture , " he said .
Non- Muslims singled out
Kenyatta said he had asked top security officials to work
with legislators and find out whether there were
administrative and legal hurdles that limit the country ' s
"ability to deal with this real and existential threat" .
About 20 attackers , described by the Kenyan government as
"heavily armed bandits" , opened fire at the quarry in the
early hours of Tuesday morning after separating Muslims
and non -Muslims , sources said .
Several people were beheaded , while others were shot in
the back of the head , sources told Al Jazeera . Al- Shabab
claimed responsibility for the attack , calling it "another
successful operation carried out by the Mujahideen ".
"This latest attack was part of a series of attacks planned and
executed by the Mujahideen to serve as a response to
Kenya' s occupation of Muslim lands and their ongoing
atrocities therein , such as the recent air strikes on Muslims
in Somalia, " Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage , al -Shabab
spokesperson, said in a statement emailed to journalists.
The dead are reportedly miners who worked in the quarry,
located just outside the town . Shortly before the attack they
were woken by the gunmen and forced to leave the tents
where they were sleeping .
Al Jazeera ' s Catherine Soi , reporting from Nairobi, said
the government had been under a lot of pressure to fire the
two security chiefs .
The attacks had become frequent and the two men have been
blamed by Kenyans for failing to provide adequate security,
she said .
She also said the Red Cross was at the scene of Tuesday' s
attack and that the military and army were heading to the
site, which is just 5 km from the border with Somalia.
"We are being told that many of the people who work in the
quarry are not from Mandera , " our correspondent said ,
adding that those killed were non -Muslims .
"This comes at a time when security in Mandera has been
beefed up because of recent attacks . We just returned from
Mandera and the security forces there assured us they are
in control of the situation , but they said that the border there
is also very porous . "
Nightclub attack
The scene of the latest attack is about 30 km from the
November 22 raid on a bus in which 28 non- Muslims were
separated from the Muslim travellers before being executed .
The shooting in the quarry comes after an attack on a
nightclub in the Kenyan town of Wajir on Monday night .
One person was killed and at least 12 injured as armed men
hurled grenades and sprayed bullets at the building , the
government said .
The Kenyan government , in a statement , said investigations
were under way to look into both incidents .
Kenya sent troops to neighbouring Somalia in 2011 to rein in
al -Shabab after raids on its coastal cities blamed on the
armed group .
It has since come under a wave of deadly attacks, including
the September 2013 assault on the Westgate shopping mall ,
which killed at least 67 people .
Al-Shabab has called for the withdrawal of the troops
which have since joined forces with African Union
peacekeepers in the Somali capital Mogadishu.