NAIROBI, Dec 3 (Reuters) – Unidentified men killed three Kenyan policeman in two separate grenade and gun attacks in the capital Nairobi on Friday, police said.
An explosive device hurled into a police van in a predominantly Somali suburb of Nairobi in the morning killed one officer in what a police commander said appeared to be a terrorist attack.
In the afternoon, two armed men on a motorbike, killed two traffic policemen. The attackers were chased and killed by Kenyan security officers.
The morning strike took place in Eastleigh during the morning rush hour. Witnesses said three men lay in wait for the white police Land Rover and tossed the device inside before running into an alley.
“This is a clear indication that terrorism is very, very real, globally and in our country. There are definitely a number of elements who are bent to cause terror in Kenya,” said Kinuthia Mbugua, Kenya’s administrative police commander.
Analysts said the attack could also have been carried out to settle a grudge against the Kenyan authorities who routinely raid the suburb to weed out illegal Somali immigrants.
Police ordered a fresh crackdown to find the attackers in Eastleigh, dubbed “Little Mogadishu”, which they say is awash with small arms and which residents say is a money laundering centre.
“It’s all systems go,” police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said when asked if a new raid was underway in Eastleigh.
“We cannot rule out any link between the two attacks, but we have not established any yet,” he said.
Foreign investors in Kenya, east Africa’s largest economy which shares a porous border with Somalia, cite the Islamist insurgency next door as a serious concern.
“For the time being there has been no reaction. But if there was a third one then we would probably see the shilling take a beating on Monday,” said Duncan Kinuthia, head of fixed-income at Bank of Africa in Nairobi.
LAWLESS NEIGHBOURS
Twice hit by al Qaeda-linked attacks, Kenya has long cast a wary eye at its lawless neighbour Somalia, where Al Shabaab militants who claim links to al Qaeda have been waging a three-year insurgency against the Western-backed Somali government and want to impose a harsh version of sharia law.
Al Shabaab claimed responsibility for blasts in the Ugandan capital Kampala that killed at least 79 people watching the soccer World Cup final in July.
Will Hartley, editor of Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Centre, said al Shabaab was recruiting in Eastleigh, but the attack could be a local grudge unless a pattern emerged.
“It is possible it could have been the action of Shabaab sympathisers,” he said.
“Kenya’s government was talking about al Shabaab’s active recruitment in that area and recently made some arrests. So we know Shabaab has a presence there although it is not operational but more support and recruitment.”
One of the two policemen involved in the first attack was released from hospital after being treated for minor bruises. He blamed the Somali insurgent group al Shabaab for the strike.
“I went to work as usual … a grenade was thrown at our car, it must be al Shabaab not anyone else,” the officer, who declined to be named, told Reuters. (Additional reporting by George Obulutsa, Wangui Kanina, Helen Nyambura-Mwaura, Richard Lough, Humphrey Malalo, Beatrice Gachenge and Sahra Abdi; Editing by Louise Ireland) (For more Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: af.reuters.com)
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