Nation
Twelve killed in Gikomba market blasts in Nairobi
Kenya Red Cross said it had evacuated least 10 people from the scene to hospitals in the city
By AFP
Twelve people were killed and over 80 wounded in two bomb attacks in Gikomba market, Nairobi, on Friday.
According to police, the blasts were caused by Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) that were about 70 metres apart. The interval between the blasts was two minutes.
Nairobi County police commander Benson Kibue said detectives were questioning two suspects arrested at the scene by members of the public shortly after the blasts. “They were positively identified and are in police custody,” Mr Kibue said, adding that the police had rescued the suspects from an angry mob.
Accounts of eye witnesses interviewed by the Nation were contradictory and police had not linked the suspects to the blasts, although the two were reportedly apprehended as they attempted to escape amid the confusion.
The first blast went off near a structure where people were buying second-hand clothes. Two men and a woman were killed on the spot while about thirty others were injured.
A 14-seater matatu that was ferrying passengers was thrown off the road and its windows shattered. The passengers sustained shrapnel injuries especially on the face and chest and all four of the matatu’s tyres were deflated.
As people fled towards Pumwani Road, the second blast went off, killing one person immediately and injuring 40 others.
The two blasts left two holes about 30 centimetres deep and 45 centimetres wide in the ground.
Police had difficulty controlling the crowd that assembled at the scene. Second-hand clothes, some soaked in blood, were strewn all over the scene, while some could be seen hanging on the overhead electricity lines.
Mr Fred Majiwa from the Kenya Red Cross confirmed that dozens of people who were injured were rushed to Kenyatta and Guru Nanak Hospitals where they are undergoing treatment.
Mr Stanley Karanja, the owner of a kiosk next to the scene of the blasts, said he heard a bang and thought at first it was a car tyre that had exploded.
“Then I heard the second explosion only this time round it was louder than the first one. I saw several bodies lying on the ground and clothes hovering in the air,” he said.
A saloon car parked next to where one of the devices went off was also wrecked by the device.
Another businessman, Mr Peter Ndegwa, who escaped the attack said that the assailants were dressed normally but among the ones arrested was a man of Somali origin.
“I sell shoes next to my friend who has just passed on; he was completely shattered by the explosion. Emotions flared up after seeing how easily I lost my friend, we should have been allowed to lynch the two who are now in police custody,” he said.
He added that people started rushing to the scene and minutes after, a second blast was heard. “Less than two minutes when people have already gathered up to get a closer look of what was happening the second explosion was heard.”
The attacks come days after several countries issued new warnings against travelling in Kenya amid a wave of bombings and attempted bombings in both Nairobi and the port city of Mombasa.
Earlier this month three people were killed and 86 wounded in twin bus blasts in Nairobi that were blamed on Islamic militant cells connected with Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab rebels. The previous day, twin attacks left four dead in Mombasa.
Kenya has been targeted by Al-Shabaab since sending troops to war-torn Somalia in 2011. Kenyan soldiers are still posted in southern Somalia as part of an African Union force supporting the country’s fragile internationally-backed government.
TOURISTS EVACUATED
On Thursday and Friday, hundreds of British tourists were being evacuated from beach resorts near Mombasa because of the travel warnings.
British travellers have been told by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to avoid “all but essential” visits to Mombasa, impacting links to nearby white-sand beach resorts.
The Kenyan government has expressed “disappointment” and has accused countries that are telling tourists to stay away of “unfriendly acts”.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest attacks. Nation
BBC
Travel firms suspend flights to Mombasa after FCO warning
BBC News spoke to holidaymakers arriving at Gatwick
Hundreds of UK tourists are being evacuated from parts of the Kenyan coast, after the Foreign Office warned of a “high threat” from terrorists.
Tour operators Thomson and First Choice cancelled all flights to Mombasa until October and said some 400 holidaymakers would be flown back as a precaution.
The main threat has been linked to the militant Islamist al-Shabab group.
As UK tourists left, officials in Kenya said at least 10 people had died in two blasts in the capital Nairobi.
TUI Travel, which operates Thomson and First Choice, said those already in the country would be flown home by Monday.
A spokesman confirmed a flight carrying some of the tourists landed at Gatwick on Friday morning, and that some holidaymakers were due to touch down at the airport at around 21:40 BST.
The FCO’s warning against non-essential travel covered the Mombasa Island area, Kiwayu and coastal areas north of Pate Island, the Garissa district, the Eastleigh area of Nairobi and the slum areas of the Kenyan capital.
Areas within 60km (37 miles) of the Kenya-Somalia border are also included in the warning.
Planes have been chartered to fly British tourists home before the weekend
The popular Diani beach resort is not subject to any Foreign Office warnings
Kenyan troops have formed part of the African Union force targeting militants in neighbouring Somalia
But the FCO said its advice did not include the Diani beach resort or the nearby Moi International Airport.
Frank Gardner BBC security correspondent
This is not the first time the Foreign Office has raised its travel advisory for Britons in Kenya due to fears of an attack by Al-Shabab.
But in this case it appears to have been prompted by specific intelligence, a warning that westerners – rather than Kenyan government figures – are being targeted by the Somalia-based militants linked to Al-Qaida.
Historically, these alerts and cancelled holidays tend to be followed by no incidents of terrorism at all.
But Whitehall officials will never forget what happened when they failed to react sufficiently to warnings of a terrorist attack in Indonesia in 2002.
Two bombs tore through a tourist area of Bali killing 202 people.
A parliamentary enquiry later blamed MI5, the Security Service, for failing to raise the alarm.
It said the main threat was from terrorism, which included kidnapping, and that westerners could be targeted.
While Thomson and First Choice have cancelled flights until October, long-haul travel company Kuoni said it was not offering holidays to the Kenyan coast for the time-being.
It said in a statement: “Although the advice does not include Moi International Airport, Diani beach or Malindi, the main road to access these resorts goes through the restricted area defined by the FCO advice.
“This means that we are no longer able to offer holidays to the Kenyan coast at present.”
Meanwhile, holidaymaker Alex Dolphin from Surrey arrived back at Gatwick having spent three days at a resort on Diani Beach.
He told the BBC: “I didn’t feel uneasy until we were in a convoy of three coaches parked on the roadside waiting to leave for the airport.
“I was keeping an eye open as we drove through Mombasa.”
Holidaymakers had been told they were being evacuated “under armed guard”, British tourist John Bonar said on Twitter from Kenya on Thursday.
The United States, France and Australia issued similar alerts, prompting the Kenyan government to criticise the advice as “obviously unfriendly”.
President Uhuru Kenyatta said if western countries had intelligence which “warrants what they have done”, they had not shared it with Kenyan intelligence officers.
Fearing the impact on the country’s tourism industry, Interior Ministry spokesman Mwenda Njoka said: “The threats are perpetual, we are at war. But we have not received any specific threat on the hotels.”
Frank Gardner explains who al-Shabab are
BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner said there may have been a tip-off from an informant that al-Shabab, based in Somalia, was planning an attack.
“What sources are saying is that it is specifically westerners they are after – either by kidnap or blowing them up,” he said.
Our correspondent added that while the Kenyan government was “upset” by the FCO warning, this was a threat the UK could not ignore.
The Kenyan government said there were two explosions in the Gikomba market area of Nairobi on Friday.
Kenya has been hit by a spate of attacks in recent years, mostly blamed on al-Shabab, and President Kenyatta vowed to fight “evil” terrorism following the latest incidents.
UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said there was “no place” for such “appalling acts of violence”, and said Kenyan authorities had Britain’s “full support”.
More tourists visit Kenya from the UK than from any other country
The Foreign Office said there were 5,000 UK nationals resident on the Kenyan coast, and 500 in or around Mombasa
Sixty-seven people were killed last September during a siege of the Westgate shopping centre, which lasted four days
Speaking from Nairobi, British aid worker Jonathan Tench said he heard about the explosions earlier and spent time trying to make sure no one he knew had been hurt.
He said the market where people died was usually busy with shoppers and traders.
“It’s so sad to think that it’s poor, ordinary Kenyans being targeted,” he said.
“I have been coming to Kenya for a long time over many years and this is really the first time that I’ve felt personally like my security is under threat.”
Al-Shabab’s attacks in the region have been carried out in response to the Kenyan military’s intervention in Somalia.
Three people were killed and more than 80 wounded in explosions on two buses in the capital Nairobi earlier this month.
The Kenyan government said al-Shabab, which is linked to al-Qaeda, was behind the attacks.
The most high-profile of the group’s recent attacks saw 67 people killed when its fighters stormed the Westgate shopping centre in September. BBC