President says Kenyan politics not Islamists behind attacks

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By Edmund Blair and Duncan Miriri NAIROBI Kenya (Reuters) - Kenya's president shifted blame to domestic rivals on Tuesday for two attacks that killed 65 people on the coast and he dismissed claims of responsibility by Somali Islamist militants, which Nairobi usually fingers for such assaults. Somalia's al Shabaab militant group has said its gunmen carried out the attacks on the town of Mpeketoni on Sunday night and on a nearby village early on Tuesday morning. In comments that could further stoke political tensions in a country where allegiances generally run along ethnic lines, President Uhuru Kenyatta instead pointed the finger at rivals he described as "hate-mongers", though he did not name anybody. "The attack in Lamu was well planned, orchestrated and politically motivated ethnic violence against the Kenyan community," Kenyatta told the nation in an address, referring to Lamu county where the two attacks took place.

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