Post date: Dec 21, 2010 4:42:2 PM
Kenya's Police commissioner says the grenade detonated at a busy bus terminal was in fact destined for Uganda.
NAIROBI, KENYA (DECEMBER 21, 2010) REUTERS - Kenya's police commissioner Mathew Itterre said on Tuesday (December 21) that the grenade that exploded on a bus on Monday (December 20) was to have been detonated in Uganda and that perpetrators of attacks in Kenya appear to have been recent converts to Islam who were heavily indoctrinated.''The grenade was destined for Uganda. But due to his nervousness, he dropped the grenade, hence occasioning the explosion,'' said Mathew Iteere, Kenya's Police Commissioner.
Both Kenyan and Ugandan police said on Tuesday there was a link between Nairobi's Monday explosion and intelligence reports pointing to further attacks this week from al-Qaeda-linked groups.
Ugandan security agencies had said earlier on Monday (December 20) that they were on high alert for planned strikes by insurgents allied to those who struck Kampala in twin suicide bombings on July 11, killing 79 people watching the World Cup final on television. The Somali rebel group al-Shabaab, which claims links to al Qaeda, claimed responsibility for those bombings.
Uganda has said it is stepping up security at border points with both Kenya and Sudan. Uganda is regarded as an enemy by militant groups waging war on Somalia's transition government, for providing troops to an AU force protecting the government.
Hit twice by al Qaeda-linked attacks, Kenya has long cast a wary eye at Somalia, where al Shabaab militants have been waging a three-year insurgency against the Western-backed Somali government and want to impose a harsh version of sharia law.
Iteere said the blast in downtown Nairobi was caused by a Russian-made grenade, which the attacker, Albert Molanda, who had entered Kenya in October this year from Tanzania, had intended to transport to Kampala. No group has so far claimed the blast, but Iteere pointed a finger at militant groups in Somalia.
"In some of these incidents which have happened in the last few days, we have found that most of the people who are perpetrating these types of crimes are people who have recently converted to Islamic faith. These are the people who have been radicalised and indoctrinated, and these are the people who are perpetrating, or are being used to perpetrate these types of crimes. We saw it during the Uganda bombing, we also saw it with the people who attacked the police at Kasarani,'' he said.
Iteere said the country's security apparatus remains on high alert as Kenya enters the festive season, and that Kenya was sharing intelligence with Tanzania and Uganda to contain potential threats.