Police foil attempt to bomb GSU parade

Police are holding two suspects who tried to sneak into the General Service Unit passing-out parade in Embakasi with bomb-making materials.

The arrest at the entrance of the GSU Training College on Tuesday delayed the arrival of the presidential motorcade for a short while as detectives made sure the area was clear. President Uhuru Kenyatta turned up for the event in military uniform, surprising many.

Security sources said one of the suspects is Kenyan and a former GSU officer while the other is a foreigner. They were arrested as they tried to walk into the graduation square with the materials that they had dismantled.

“They planned to connect the materials while inside and set them off in the crowd to cause major impact. A stampede alone would have caused great damage and deaths,” said a senior official who asked not to be named.

Police had on Monday night raided a house in Umoja where they arrested other suspects. But it is not clear if these suspects have any link to those arrested at Embakasi. The suspects were undergoing interrogation at the Anti-Terror Unit offices as part of efforts to know if there were more accomplices.

Security at the parade where more than 1,900 officers passed out was heightened with visitors undergoing thorough screening. About 10,000 people attended the event.

The incident came a day after a leaked memo warned of a planned terror attack on Kenyan airports. The memo said Al-Shabaab terrorists planned to attack domestic flights, adding 11 suicide bombers had been released for the mission.

The memo came days after Inspector General of police Joseph Boinnet said Al-Shabaab threat remains alive in the country.

“Available information indicates that Al-Shabaab is still keen on attacking us targeting security installations, soft targets in the Northern Kenya counties, in the Coast and other major cities,” said Boinnet on Friday.

He urged Kenyans to be vigilant and to report anything suspicious to the police for immediate action.

Boinnet said security agencies have made significant progress in counter terrorism measures, which has seen foiling of several arrests of terror suspects in Mombasa, Malindi, Lamu, Garissa, Wajir, Mandera and Nairobi. Al-Shabaab terrorists have been blamed for the killings of more than 500 Kenyans in separate attacks.