At least nine people were shot and beheaded in Kenya's coastal Lamu County early Saturday, in the latest attack on the area. All the victims were civilians.

Police sources said militants of the Al Qaeda-aligned Shabaab were believed to be behind the killings. The massacre took place in Jima and Pandaguo villages near the Somali border, an area that has seen a wave of recent attacks, mostly targeting the security forces.

“Nine people were killed, some were shot dead and others hacked (to death),” said a regional police officer who was not authorised to speak to the press.

A senior officer at police headquarters in Nairobi confirmed the incident.

“It is true, we have lost nine people in today's attack,” the officer said, without providing further details.

Earlier in the week, three police were killed in an attack on a police post in Lamu, blamed on Shabaab.

The militant group is fighting to overthrow the internationally-backed government in Mogadishu but also carries out regular attacks in neighbouring Kenya, which has troops in Somalia as part of an African Union force.

In a televised address on Saturday morning following the death in hospital of Kenya's Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery, President Uhuru Kenyatta spoke of “an unfortunate incident this morning, which we are assessing.”

Appointing Education Minister Fred Matiangi as acting security minister, Kenyatta promised there would be “no vacuum in securing our country.

Kenya goes to the polls on August 8 with Kenyatta hoping to win a second and final four-year term.