5 BOMBS-3 LOCATIONS-OVER 2 WEEKS

Kenya has not been the same since the Westgate Shopping Mall Attack in September last year where 67 people were killed on a 4 day siege of a mall in the Nairobi only 10 minute drive from my house.   Security has been beefed up everywhere.  Dropping Nettie at her school, there is security to get onto the school road, there are armed police in turrets at the entrance gate to the school in additional to extra security and even more security checking each car.  There has always been security at the shopping malls.  When you travel by car, they check under your vehicle with a mirror and they now have a secondary check point where they check the inside of your car and you are required to get out of the vehicle while they do this check.  Your bag is then checked and a body scan is done before you enter the shopping mall.  It is not unusual to see police and military walking the streets with guns on their sides as you drive around the city.  Yes there is a definite change in the air since September 2013.  It is a little unbelievable that we now accept these changes, men with guns, security checks as part of our everyday life, but it is reassuring all the same.

The country has been rocked again the last few weeks with 5 bombs going off in the last 2 weeks and a few that have been found and diffused just in time.  So why are there so many attacks on Kenya?  Why is the county being targeted by terrorists and why?  It is a simple answer, a complex problem, but a simple answer.  The Shabab, the al-Qaeda linked Somali militant group claims that the attacks are in retaliation for the role of Kenyan troops in the African Union Mission in Somalia. The group has carried out many attacks in Kenya over the last 12 months.  Kenya's decision to send troops into southern Somalia in October 2011, in pursuit of the Shabab, could be called a disaster for not only Kenya, but also for those living in the borderlands between the two countries. Garissa and Mandera, the two largest settlements, now resemble garrison towns in hostile territory with heavily-fortified government compounds and army barracks.  The Kenyan government is committed to keeping troops in lawless Somalia. But opposition parties want troops to come home soon, arguing the extended deployment in Somalia has brought terrorism to Kenya.  This is the simple answer.  There are a percentage of the Somali population that want Kenya out of their country and as long as Kenya have troops deployed there, attacks on Kenya and it’s citizens will continue.  It has been like this for the last 12 months.  But in April this year, the attacks were stepped up and now the country is back on high alert, the population a little jumpy with good reason and your own security and personal safety is threatened and needs to be reviewed.

The first round of bombings occurred when a car bomb exploded outside a police station in a suburb of Nairobi, killing four people.  It was around 7pm on a Wednesday night when police were taking the occupants of a car in for questioning in the Pangani neighbourhood when it exploded.  Pangani district is near the Eastleigh suburb, where many people of Somali origin live.  Police have now attributed the bomb explosion at the Pangani police station to a suicide bomber who was facing arrest for a traffic offense.  The sequence of events leading to the explosion was that police in a patrol car had flagged down a salon car that was being driven on the wrong side of the road.  The two police officers then entered the car to escort the driver and passenger to the police station for further interrogation.  Officers entered the car to make sure suspects didn’t escape with one sitting in front and the other at the back as a patrol car escorted them from behind.  But just at the entrance of the police station, one of the occupants detonated a homemade bomb that had been mounted at the boot of the car. The car exploded killing the two officers and the two suspects on the spot.  Officers in an escort car that was behind them were lucky; only the front tyres of their vehicle were deflated, and the windscreen shattered but the officers were unharmed.  The crackdown on suspected terrorist cells in the city will still continue.  Nairobi has been targeted in the past in attacks attributed to Somali al-Shabab militants, who oppose Kenya's military involvement in Somalia.  The blast comes three weeks after police arrested more than 600 people in Eastleigh following explosions that killed six people.  A grenade also found at the scene was detonated by police. 

10 days later another attack was launched in Mombasa in 2 separate attacks on a Saturday afternoon.  One blast happened at a busy bus station in Mwembe Tayari, near the city centre, when a grenade was thrown into a crowded minibus killing three people, and wounding more than 20.  At the bus terminus, victims were sprawled in a pool of blood and the road was littered with shattered glass from a bus.  It seems surreal and looks like a scene from a movie, and then you have to catch yourself when you realize this is reality, the reality of living in Kenya and is definitely not a movie.  The attackers were riding on a motorbike, and lobbed the grenade at the crowd of people at the bus terminus.  The other explosion occurred at a well-known beach resort hotel, the Reef Hotel, in the Nyali area of the city, although no casualties were reported.  An unattended bag had been found on the beach, which was abandoned at the gate of the hotel after it was found to contain what turned out to be an explosive device, which subsequently went off.  While no one has immediately claimed responsibility for the blasts, Kenya has been targeted in the past by gun and grenade attacks in Mombasa and central Nairobi, which the government has blamed on the al Qaeda-linked Somali group al Shababa.

Then not even 24 hours later panic gripped the city after two more blasts went off on separate buses along the Thika superhighway, in Nairobi, on Sunday evening.  Elsabe said she heard the blast from her house and both blasts were only 2 suburbs away from where we live.  It is close to home.  The first explosion was at a Githurai-bound bus near Blue Springs Hotel and the second explosion was on a Kasarani-bound bus just as it negotiated the Roysambu underpass.  Both buses were packed full of passengers and killed three people and injuring 86 others.  While bus blasts aren’t rare in Nairobi, Sunday’s explosions come at a time of heightened tension about terrorism and ethnicity.  Kenya has been rooting out illegal immigrants, especially in Nairobi’s big Somali neighbourhoods, because it considers them a terrorism threat. Somalis have been rounded up in house-to-house raids to have their residency papers checked, and some have been reportedly held for as many as eight days in a local soccer stadium. Many Somalis and Kenyans of Somali heritage have complained of feeling profiled since the terrorism crackdown began a month ago.  The blasts were caused by Improvised Explosive Devises that had been planted in the two buses that were carrying passengers.  Police and witnesses said the first blast happened at about 5pm near Homeland area where the IED went off as the bus raced towards Githurai 45. The explosive caused massive damages and seriously injured those on board the Jeean Sacco. The second blast happened few minutes apart at the Roysambu underpass killing two passengers who were in the bus. The Mwiki Sacco bus was ferrying 51 passengers from the CBD when the explosion happened.  The impact of the blasts could be seen on the buses that had their window panes completely shattered. These two explosions came a day after two other blasts in Mombasa had killed four people.  In a statement released on Sunday, President Kenyatta called for Kenyans to remain calm and vigilant in the wake of the attack.

With the media coverage that has been over the blasts it is disturbing when you see the photos and images that are released.  There is video footage of the aftermath on You Tube, some of the photos are graphic and if that is not bad enough, it is really, really scary when you see the photos released of the false alarms.  The bomb squad go in with NO safety gear at all on, no goggles, no gloves, no head gear, just the bomb officer and his loyal dog and the most disturbing thing is that the local population are all ‘rubber necking’ at the scene only 20-30m away!!!!!  They don’t clear the area enough and if it was an actual bomb, and it was to go off, there would be far more casualties just from the curious and this is just crazy, on both accounts. 

And you know what it gets even more INSANE with news this week that the five matatu bus crew from the Thika superhighway bombings have been charged with failing to screen passengers in connection with the explosions in ill-fated buses on the Thika Road on Sunday.  They have been charged with failure to PREVENT a felony, namely murder and were ordered to deposit personal bonds of Sh5 million each with two sureties of similar amounts.  The prosecution said that the crew failed to screen passengers “thereby allowing the buses to be blown up by an unknown passenger.”  All 5, two drivers and 2 conductors, have all denied the charge.  Does an airline pilot get charged for a problem with the plane or failure of security breach?  I’m not aware of the Kenyan law, but is it a legal violation for a PSV not to screen their passengers? When and where do they get trained on how to screen, and with what tools? How much efforts have security experts put in sensitizing / educating Kenyans on security precautions? Let’s assume that they scanned the commuters and found a bomb on one of them, what would have the conductors done? There are statements that the police are mandated by law to protect citizens and it is they who should check the commuters before boarding and to take it one step further that the government has allowed undocumented illegal residents with carelessness and corruption that has allowed the influx of illegal weapons and bomb making materials into the country over many years and why should this crew have to suffer at the hands of the government for past and present governments failures to start with.  It’s a lot to take in, a lot of questions, a lot of finger pointing-but I do believe that to charge these poor drivers and conductors is just the most insane and unjust thing.  Just because we live in Africa does not make it right to ruin 5 lives and their families for what is already a horrific situation. 

5 BOMBS-3 LOCATIONS-OVER 2 WEEKS

Yes Kenya is back on high alert as we hear that there are more attacks to come.  The terrorists aren’t targeting the foreign people, they are attacking the locals, and hope that they will make the population angry enough for them to turn on themselves and the government, to try, and by numbers, sway the government to pull out the Kenyan troops in Somalia.  Kenya sent troops to Somalia in 2011 to fight al-Shabab and the al-Qaeda-affiliated group and the group have now vowed to retaliate by launching attacks in Kenya, and so far they have kept to their word.  This is the world we live in and we just need to be viligent, watch out for each other and be ALERT.  This last week there has been multiple bomb scares of unattended bags in 2 supermarkets, a bag left unattended on a major road and a bag left in the CBD.  They were all false alarms, but at least people are taking these threats seriously and calling in things that look suspicious.  I would prefer 100 false alarms than have the worst happen and another bomb goes off.