Written by Kate Linthicum | From The LA Times

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said Tuesday that two nights of deadly attacks on Kenya’s coast were not the work of Somali militants, who have claimed responsibility for the violence. Instead Kenyatta blamed local leaders, whom he accused of seeking to “divide” the country.

“This was not an Al Shabab terrorist attack,” Kenyatta said in a televised address a day after armed militants struck the coast for the second night in a row, killing at least 15 people in the village of Poromoko.

The president did not go into detail or name suspects, but he blamed local leaders for what he called “well-planned, orchestrated and politically motivated violence.”

The statement came despite Al Shabab’s claim of responsibility for the attacks, which began Sunday night when militants lay siege to the town of Mpeketoni, killing 48 people.

On Monday the group released a statement saying its fighters burned a police station, bank, hotels and other buildings in revenge for the killings of several clerics in the Kenya city of Mombasa and the presence of Kenyan troops in Somalia. The group declared Kenya a “war zone” and warned tourists to stay home.

Read more at The LA Times