The Coast region has been the epicentre of deadly attacks that have left tens of people killed and scores others injured in the past two months. Consequently, this has caused a major scare, graphically demonstrated in massive decline in tourism, the mainstay of the economy at the Coast.
Combined with the previous terror attacks in various parts ofthe country, the message is that Kenya is an unsafe destination.
Not surprisingly, foreign embassies and other international agencies hosted in Nairobi are reconsidering their continued stay in the country.
Indeed, yesterday, the US government, which has scaled down its embassy operations considerably, suspended the Peace Corps programme that has been running since the 1960s on the grounds of insecurity. These are worrying trends as they add to the negative narrative about Kenya.
Yet, the government does not give the confidence that it is focused on ending the attacks. Variously, it has given mixed signals. While it initially acknowledged that the attacks were perpetrated by Al-Shabaab terrorists, the storyline has increasingly changed that it is the Opposition to blame.
Only yesterday, Mombasa County Commissioner Nelson Marwa went hammer and tongs to accuse the Opposition party ODM of fuelling the wave of violence in the area without adducing any evidence to corroborate the claims.
Logically, it would be expected that the government should have swung into action and arrested opposition figures it suspects to be behind the mayhem, but it has not, raising questions as to whether this is not a diversionary tactic.
Unfortunately, government functionaries, including Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph ole Lenku, have been bandying such loose statements with abandon.
The tragedy is that such narrative emboldens the real masterminds of the chaos.
If the government knows it is the Opposition causing the chaos, then the suspects should be arrested and punished. Empty claims only serve to trivialise a grave matter and motivate the perpetrators to intensify the attacks.
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