NAIROBI, Kenya: Somalia’s extremist rebels killed a Kenyan policeman Thursday when they attacked a police station in northern Mandera County, raising security concerns over next week’s national elections.
Al-Shabab, which is allied to Al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack on Lafey police station near the border with Somalia. The group made the claim through its Shahada News Agency’s blog and social media accounts, according to the SITE monitoring group.
Two vehicles were burned in the early morning attack, according to Kenya’s North Eastern regional coordinator Mohamud Saleh.
The violence comes a day after three people died in a suspected Al-Shabab attack in southern Kenya and days before Kenya’s national elections on Tuesday.
Al-Shabab has been threatening since March to disrupt the elections and they repeated the threat last week, according to former US Marine and security analyst Andrew Franklin. The attacks come at time when Kenyan security agents are stretched to prevent election violence, Franklin said.
“Without effective security the credibility of the elections cannot be assured,” Franklin said.
Al-Shabab in recent weeks has stepped up deadly attacks in Kenya’s border counties of Lamu and Mandera. Voting will be affected in those areas, said Franklin.
The extremist group has carried out more than 100 attacks inside Kenya, calling it retribution for the East African nation’s deployment of troops to Somalia in 2011 to fight the extremists.
Somalia rebels kill Kenyan police officer in attack
Somalia rebels kill Kenyan police officer in attack
UK upper house approves social media ban for under-16s
LONDON: Britain’s upper house of parliament voted Wednesday in favor of banning under?16s from using social media, raising pressure on the government to match a similar ban passed in Australia.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Monday he was not ruling out any options and pledged action to protect children, but his government wants to wait for the results of a consultation due this summer before legislating.
Calls have risen across the opposition and within the governing Labour party for the UK to follow Australia, where under-16s have been barred from social media applications since December 10.
The amendment from opposition Conservative lawmaker John Nash passed with 261 votes to 150 in the House of Lords, co?sponsored by a Labour and a Liberal Democrat peer.
“Tonight, peers put our children’s future first,” Nash said. “This vote begins the process of stopping the catastrophic harm that social media is inflicting on a generation.”
Before the vote, Downing Street said the government would not accept the amendment, which now goes to the Labour-controlled lower House of Commons. More than 60 Labour MPs have urged Starmer to back a ban.
Public figures including actor Hugh Grant urged the government to back the proposal, saying parents alone cannot counter social media harms.
Some child-protection groups warn a ban would create a false sense of security.
A YouGov poll in December found 74 percent of Britons supported a ban. The Online Safety Act requires secure age?verification for harmful content.
