The president called on Kenyans to pull together
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has said "we will not
flinch" in the war against Islamist group al-Shabab after a
massacre near the Somali border.
"This is a war against Kenya and Kenyans," he said on
national TV. "It is a war that every one of us must fight."
Kenya's police chief, David Kimayo, and Interior Minister
Ole Lenku are being replaced.
Al-Shabab earlier killed 36 quarry workers in the Mandera
region.
The group attacked the workers around midnight on
Monday as they slept in tents at the quarry in Kormey,
15km (nine miles) from the north-eastern town of Mandera.
The non-Muslim workers were shot dead after being
separated from the Muslims.
A driver who visited the scene of the attack, Ali Sheikh
Yusuf, told the BBC most of the victims appeared to have
been lined up, and shot in the head, at close range.
He said four were beheaded inside their tents, while three
appeared to have escaped to Mandera town.
Al-Shabab has stepped up its campaign in Kenya since
2011, when Kenya sent troops across the border to help
battle the militants.
Only last week, al-Shabab killed 28 people in an attack on
a bus targeting non-Muslims in the same area.
In one of the worst attacks on Kenyan soil, 67 people were
killed last year when four gunmen took over the Westgate
shopping mall in Nairobi.
In recent months, dozens of people have been killed in a
series of shooting attacks in coastal districts.
The security situation has led to calls from the opposition
and some in the governing party for the dismissal of
Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku and police chief David
Kimaiyo.
Hundreds of people sought refuge at a military airstrip in
the Mandera region last week, fearing a fresh assault by al-
Shabab.
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