By Cyrus Ombati
The terrorist chose to strike the heartthrob of Kenya’s nationhood, and though luckily no one died, Kenyans lost something they treasure most — the feeling of being home and safe from harm.
Not just that, but 33 people lay in hospital beds groaning in pain from cuts and stitches, the offspring of war with a renegade cell from across the border, and which they have always thought of as far removed from them.
Most victims received serious burns, fractures and deep lacerations even as the cause of the blast remained unknown with Government officials giving conflicting accounts.
A witness wounded in the blast said the explosion occurred soon after a bearded man left a bag near her stall.
“A light skinned man walked in and out of the building after placing a bag which later exploded,” said the woman.
The woman, identified as Irene Wachira, who spoke to Associated Press from a Nairobi hospital bed said a man came to the stall twice and acted as if he was interested in buying something, but returned a third time with the bag.
At first, the police appeared reluctant to admit it was a terror attack, woven in the same style but lower in scale than that of the August 1998 bomb detonation at the former base of what used to be the US Embassy, opposite Cooperative House. Their biggest fear appeared to be the mention of the one scary word ‘bomb’.
Ordinary Kenyans
In 1998, over 260 were killed and to date, their memories evoke the bitterness wrought in many hearts by terror networks.
Monday’s attackers chose a time when business is brisk and hardworking Kenyans are haggling over prices and counting their gains and losses, or just admiring what is on display and making a mental note to buy when money comes around.
The targets were ordinary Kenyans in exhibition halls, popular selling points for those seeking good bargains, which is a convenient way of going about the rising cost of living, high rate of inflation and plummeting earnings.
Second trauma
After the blast at 1:08pm, innocent Kenyans lay writhing in pain, their faces bloodied, their limbs sliced open and their hitherto tranquil and blissful shattered forever.
They suffered a second trauma when some of those who rushed to the scene either looted their hard-earned wares, or stood at a distance and took pictures of their pitiful state using their phones.
Worse still, Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere arrived at the scene under heavy guard and quickly declared that the blast came from an ‘electrical fault’, despite the fact that the explosion was heard far and wide, and shattered the windows of adjacent buildings and concrete walls.
It was only when Kenya Power Company, whose reputation has been blotted by perennial power outages of late, said there were no transformers in the building that could have exploded, that Iteere confirmed Kenya’s worst fears that the blast could have come from an Improvised Explosive Device (IED).
This fits the recent spate of attacks in Mombasa, Northern Kenya and the capital itself. That statement alone scratched the wounds of the nation healing from the devastation of the 1998 US Embassy and 2002 Kikambala Hotel bombings, and also poured salt on other bruises opened up by the smaller but deadly sequenced attacks reported after Kenyan troops entered Somalia last October.
Monday’s blast took place at Assanands House along Moi Avenue. Five of the injured had serious wounds after the explosion that ripped off the roof before turning into an inferno.
No shrapnel
Iteere had immediately ruled out a grenade attack saying there were no pellets or shrapnel recovered either at the scene or on the bodies of the victims.
“Preliminary investigation has shown it was not caused by a grenade or a bomb. We are trying to establish if it was caused by an electric fault,” Iteere told journalists at the scene.
“The affected building has no ground mounted transformer inside it or outside that would explode,” Kenya Power said in its defence.
The firm said its technicians and engineers had visited the scene and “found all the electrical connections to the building including the cutouts (fuses) on the Kenya Power side that would otherwise blow in the event of a short circuit inside the building intact.”
Finally in the evening, Iteere said in a statement that the investigating team was exploring the possibility that the blast was caused by criminals using an IED. Bomb experts who combed the scene confirmed the blast was as a result of an IED, which was set off using a timer.
When the explosion went off, there were many people in the affected building that mostly sell clothes, shoes and CDs. It could be heard more than a kilometre away and left the adjacent Mount Kenya University Towers town campus windows shattered.
The blast ripped the front corner of the building’s aluminum roof and sent items for sale in the shops, like shoes and clothes, flying across the floors. It created a crater in the building next to where the wall had peeled off following the impact.
People with bloody wounds received medical care on the street and adjacent clinics before they were rushed to Kenyatta National Hospital and the Aga Khan University Hospital. The blast left many with a feeling of what happens in countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan where such incidents are common.
Prime Minister Raila Odinga called the explosion a heinous act of terrorism on Kenyans Odinga said Kenya was under threat, but warned that the act and others that have happened would not cow Kenyans.
Odinga said security would be improved in Nairobi and other urban areas and urged Kenyans to remain united.
