Nairobi blast wounds 33, Odinga blames militants
Source: Agencies |
May 29, 2012, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
AN explosion ripped through a building full of small shops in downtown Nairobi, Kenya, yesterday, injuring at least 33 people, including a woman who blamed the blast on a "bearded man" who left behind a bag shortly before the detonation.
Police officials first indicated the explosion could have been caused by some sort of electrical malfunction but the Kenyan prime minister said it was deliberate. Al-Shabab - an Islamist militant group from Somalia - has threatened to carry out such an attack.
"This is a heinous act," Prime Minister Raila Odinga said while visiting the scene of the blast. "They want to scare us. But we will not be scared."
The explosion sent dark smoke billowing out of a one-story building on Moi Avenue, named after Kenya's second president. The blast peeled back the front corner of the building's aluminum roof, shattered windows in the building and scattered shoes, clothes and other wares on the ground. A high-rise building with a glass exterior next door was largely untouched.
Speaking from a Nairobi hospital bed, Irene Wachira said a bearded man came to a nearby stall three times and acted as if he were interested in buying something. Wachira said the third time he came with a bag that he left behind. The blast occurred shortly afterward.
Wachira, a vendor in the building, described the man as "Arabic-looking" because of his relatively light skin. A doctor said that another person wounded in the blast said a Somali-looking man left behind the bag. The doctor said he could not be quoted by name.
Police officials who first responded hesitated to blame terrorism, given the lack of shrapnel. Kenya Power ruled out an electrical fault as the cause. The national electricity agency said the building had no ground-mounted transformer that would explode.
The police later released a statement saying the cause of the explosion had not yet been established. Police are investigating the possibility that an improvised explosive device caused the blast, though they said it was unlikely a conventional bomb had been used.
After the explosion, bloodied people received medical care on the street as authorities tried to usher hundreds of people away. The scene was played out just a few blocks from where the United States Embassy had been destroyed by a truck bomb in 1998. Al-Qaida's near-simultaneous attacks on the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killed 224 people.
Odinga said security would be boosted downtown and that the Somali militants, who are linked to al-Qaida, "want to scare investors. They want to scare tourists."
Al-Shabab's threat to carry out large-scale attacks followed Kenya's decision last October to send troops into Somalia to pursue the Islamist militants.
Police officials first indicated the explosion could have been caused by some sort of electrical malfunction but the Kenyan prime minister said it was deliberate. Al-Shabab - an Islamist militant group from Somalia - has threatened to carry out such an attack.
"This is a heinous act," Prime Minister Raila Odinga said while visiting the scene of the blast. "They want to scare us. But we will not be scared."
The explosion sent dark smoke billowing out of a one-story building on Moi Avenue, named after Kenya's second president. The blast peeled back the front corner of the building's aluminum roof, shattered windows in the building and scattered shoes, clothes and other wares on the ground. A high-rise building with a glass exterior next door was largely untouched.
Speaking from a Nairobi hospital bed, Irene Wachira said a bearded man came to a nearby stall three times and acted as if he were interested in buying something. Wachira said the third time he came with a bag that he left behind. The blast occurred shortly afterward.
Wachira, a vendor in the building, described the man as "Arabic-looking" because of his relatively light skin. A doctor said that another person wounded in the blast said a Somali-looking man left behind the bag. The doctor said he could not be quoted by name.
Police officials who first responded hesitated to blame terrorism, given the lack of shrapnel. Kenya Power ruled out an electrical fault as the cause. The national electricity agency said the building had no ground-mounted transformer that would explode.
The police later released a statement saying the cause of the explosion had not yet been established. Police are investigating the possibility that an improvised explosive device caused the blast, though they said it was unlikely a conventional bomb had been used.
After the explosion, bloodied people received medical care on the street as authorities tried to usher hundreds of people away. The scene was played out just a few blocks from where the United States Embassy had been destroyed by a truck bomb in 1998. Al-Qaida's near-simultaneous attacks on the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killed 224 people.
Odinga said security would be boosted downtown and that the Somali militants, who are linked to al-Qaida, "want to scare investors. They want to scare tourists."
Al-Shabab's threat to carry out large-scale attacks followed Kenya's decision last October to send troops into Somalia to pursue the Islamist militants.
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