Blast in Kenyan capital Nairobi
2012-12-17 12:48
Nairobi - A huge blast shook the predominantly Somali
neighbourhood of Eastleigh in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Sunday evening,
police said.
"There has been an explosion in the area. We do not
have any more details currently about the nature of the explosion or whether
there are casualties involved," area police chief Moses Nyakwama told AFP.
Witnesses say there were at least three separate blasts and
that the explosions occurred near a bar. The Kenya Red Cross, in a statement
said that there had been "at least three separate grenade attacks"
and that the grenades had been thrown from a speeding vehicle.
The blasts follow a recent grenade attack outside a mosque
that killed at least five people as well as wounding the local member of
parliament.
A recent roadside bomb in Eastleigh district killed one
person and wounded several others. And last month, a bomb on a bus killed nine
people.
Kenya has suffered a string of attacks, often blamed on al-Qaeda-linked
Shabaab militants, since it invaded Somalia last year.
Security ahead of elections
Kenyan troops, now integrated into an African Union force,
seized the Shabaab bastion of Kismayo in September, a key southern Somali port.
That led to warnings of retaliation from both the insurgents and their Kenyan
supporters.
But the Shabaab have denied involvement in previous similar
bombings.
Violence in Kenya - ranging from attacks blamed on
Islamists, inter-communal clashes and a police crackdown on a coastal
separatist movement - have raised concerns over security ahead of elections due
in March 2013.
Five years ago, elections descended into deadly post-poll
killings that shattered Kenya's image as a beacon of regional stability.
Last month, riots broke out in the Eastleigh district of
Nairobi after the bombing of a bus, with running street battles between
demonstrators and the police.
- SAPA
