A watchman at Kibaoni petrol Station saved more than 30 people among them four journalists and passengers of a Simba Bus from heavily armed gunmen who killed at least 56 people in Mpeketoni on Sunday.
He identified himself as a Muslim, which prevented the gang from burning down the petrol station where several people were hiding. Guyo Baroni was trying to escape after the gun shots drew closer to the petrol station when the heavily armed militia spotted him and ordered him to stop or else they would shoot him.
Baroni said he told the gang he was alone at the petrol station guarding the premises. “They asked me to give him the keys to the station and disclose who the owner was,” said the watchman.
Baroni said he was forced to swear in Islam for the attackers to know he was a Muslim and spare his life. They also asked him about the owner of the bus parked at the station but one of the attackers told his colleagues that he knew the company belonged to a Muslim.
After interrogation the watchman said the gang told him they have a message which he should deliver to the government or else they would come back to kill him.
“We want this message to reach the Kenyan government. We are al Shabaab from Somalia and have come to execute people because of the government’s move to invade our country and kill innocent people.”
Baroni said the gang also told him they will return to execute more people in Kenya and later move on to Tanzania and Uganda. They then frogmarched him to the road where they shot two brothers they had captured as he watched. The watchman said four people confronted him.
They were dressed in militrary combat gear and had automatic riffles and grenade launchers. They also wore masks over their faces. He said they spoke Somali and appeared organised.
Guyo said they walked with him until the nearby Kibaoni junction where they forced him to drink a soda. “I was then ordered to run without looking back or else they would shoot me,” he said.
Baroni said the time he was with the al Shabaab was the most terrifying of his life. Anyone found on the road would either be hacked to death or shot at and left on the road. Others went door to door and targeted men only leaving women and children inside.
During the entire attack there was no communication as the gang had destroyed the Administration Police headquarters in Mpeketoni, Safaricom communication, vehicles, and even electricity transformers.
At dawn hundreds of people started coming out from the forests and other hideouts to check the destruction and death. They found dead people on the roads and others inside their houses.
– the-star.co.ke
