Despite the military campaign, families were still leaving the area yesterday heading towards Witu after an attack on Saturday night.
The attackers, who villagers say claimed to be members of Al-Shabaab, raided the village and left after harvesting green maize from a farm there. The farm’s owner, Mr Mohammed Ali Gelogelo, said the raiders arrived shortly after 9 pm and ransacked his house before descending on the farm.
Hiding behind a tree
“I was hiding behind a tree deep in the farm and I could see them walking around. They were heavily armed young men. I watched them as they harvested,” he said.
Mr Jarajara, who said he came face with the attackers, among them a tall man who appeared to be of European descent, said the raiders identified themselves as members of Al-Shabaab.
“They asked me whether I was a Muslim. When I responded in the affirmative, two of them started talking to me in Kiswahili and then translated (the conversation) into Arabic to the tall white man. They told me that they were Al-Shabaab members and they would return once more.”
He claimed that the attackers were of different nationalities including Somalis and Kenyans.

The Saturday night raid came two days after another on Thursday night. In the latest attack, the raiders scared away villagers, broke into several houses and ransacked them for valuable.
According to Abubakar Shabi, a resident at Pandanguo, the raiders struck at around 11pm.
They fired in the air after which many of the villagers escaped.
“When we heard the gunshots, everyone ran to the bushes where we hid till morning,” said Mr Shabi.
The raiders then invaded Jima Farm where they harvested more than two acres of green maize.
Among those who had their houses broken into was a KWS officer.

Arsonists on Sunday night razed an abandoned hotel and two houses in Manda,opposite Lamu Island a day after gunmen raided a village in Pandanguo.
The arsonists set fire to a hotel at Ras Kitau in Lamu East that has been closed for years plus two smaller homes according to officials. No casualties were reported.
Ras Kitau is the location where British national David Tebbut was killed and his wife Judith kidnapped by suspected Al shabaab operatives in 2011.

Raiders who hit Pandanguo and Jima villages in Lamu on Saturday night stormed a mosque and even had time to preach to Muslims who had gone there for prayers.
The attackers, who witnesses said introduced themselves as members of Al-Shabaab, raided the two villages twice, forcing villagers to flee in their hundreds. After the raid, they harvested maize at a nearby farm as the owner watched before storming into a mosque at Pandanguo where they delivered a Jihadist sermon.
They had found the worshippers deep in Taraweeh prayer performed by Muslims in the month of Ramadhan. Pandanguo and Jima residents in Lamu County have borne the brunt of ruthless gunmen, who have been linked to recent killings of at least 87 people in Lamu County.
According to locals, about 50 heavily armed gunmen entered the mosque and found six Kenya Police Reservists among the worshippers and warned them not to pick up their rifles which they had placed on prayer mats.

Speaking to Nation at Pandanguo on Monday, Mr Abdalla said the gunmen interrupted the prayer session led by Imam Adan Vaye before one of them took to the podium to deliver a 30-minute Jihadist sermon mainly in Somali and Arabic, while another translated it into Kiswahili before the frightened worshippers.
“The main speaker who delivered the sermon was a young bearded man, with his Kiswahili translator by his side.
“He asked us to support them to wage Jihad. We reluctantly responded In-sh-Allah (God willing),” he said.
Mr Sharuti Ali, another reservist, said the gunmen who entered the mosque with their shoes on, first ordered him and five colleagues to stand before the worshippers and declared them infidels (non-believers) for working with the Kenya government to send troops to Somalia.

@Nandwa, when the CORD angle petered out, people lost interest

Seconded!