Aden Duale, the Defence Cabinet Secretary, will visit the Kenya Navy Base in Lamu County on Saturday.
The CS will monitor the activities of the Kenya Defence Forces at the base.
The Kenya Navy Base in Manda Bay contributes significantly to Kenya’s counter-terrorism efforts while also strengthening the country’s ability to secure its maritime domain.
The Kenya Navy Base in Manda Bay, strategically located in the Lamu Archipelago, will thus help address such risks and threats, making Kenya’s maritime economic zone safer for ocean-related economic activities to thrive.
Safeguarding our maritime interests is paramount to achieving the desired economic transformation at national and devolved levels, especially in the six coastal counties of Mombasa, Kwale, Kilifi, Lamu, Tana River, and Taita Taveta, which are contiguous to the maritime economic zone.
Incidents of attacks by militants in the coastal county have been on the rise in recent weeks.
On Monday night, heavily armed suspected Al-Shabaab militants raided Salama village in Lamu West where they razed down eight houses and a church before stealing household items and fled into the nearby forest.
So far a total of ten people have been killed and property worth millions, including tens of houses, were destroyed by the terrorists in Lamu West villages between June and August this year.
On August 1, 2023, two people, including the wife of Hindi Ward MCA, James Njaaga, were killed when over 60 heavily armed suspected al Shabaab militants attacked vehicles by spraying them with bullets at Mwembeni area, near Lango La Simba, along the Lamu-Witu-Garsen road.
The 7.40 a.m. attack also left 10 people, including Njaaga seriously injured while a Matatu and two motorbikes were burnt to ashes by the terrorists.
