NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – When Kenya sent troops to Somalia in 2011 to fight Islamic extremists, the al-Qaida-linked group al-Shabab threatened to retaliate by bringing down Nairobi’s skyscrapers.
The buildings still stand, but a series of mass killings in which non-Muslims were singled out for slaughter has increased pressure on Kenya to improve security along a porous border and explain why its army should remain in Somalia.
Al-Shabab quickly claimed responsibility for the latest chilling assault: Gunmen invaded a quarry in northern Kenya, lined up 36 non-Muslim laborers, and killed them early Tuesday. That followed a similar massacre on Nov. 22, when al-Shabab killed 28 Kenyans on a bus, again sparing the Muslims among the passengers.
The group’s most notorious attack was on the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi last year, when it also targeted non-Muslims, although the four gunmen killed people of all faiths. At least 67 died in that siege in the capital of the East African nation.
Kenya sent its military forces into Somalia in hopes of creating a secure buffer zone between Somalia’s internal chaos and Kenyan territory. But the series of attacks by al-Shabab has left Kenyans demanding change, and President Uhuru Kenyatta responded Tuesday by shaking up the leadership of his security team.