Police urge for vigilance, intensify search for suspect behind explosive

Security officers push journalists away from Odeon building and its environs after IED exploded along Tom Mboya Avenue. [Jonah nyango, Standard]

A joint team is working to identify the owner of a luggage that contained an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) that went off at a crowded place in Nairobi and injured two people.

The motive behind the detonation of the device is yet to be established but security agents argue it could be that those behind it were “testing waters”.

The team handling the case was sieving through security cameras at the scene as part of efforts to trace the movements of the trolley puller who had the luggage with the IED and the supposed owner.

The puller and a newspaper vendor were injured when the blast went off outside Odeon Cinema at the Latema/Tom Mboya Street Junction on Saturday at about 7 pm.

The trolley puller told police he had been approached at the Baba Dogo bus stop by a woman in a hijab and asked him to deliver the luggage to Kenya Cinema area. The woman handed him Sh100 for the work.

 The money is among evidence now being analysed.

After they had walked for about 200 meters, the woman told the trolley pusher she had forgotten her identification document at a nearby shop and needed to rush and pick it.

“The luggage went off minutes after the owner had left the scene claiming she had forgotten her ID and needed to pick it,” said the man at the hospital.

Police have established there were many nails used to make the IED. They also recovered a switch, which was used in setting it off.

“We suspect there was a mobile phone planted on the explosive to trigger it off,” added another official.

The team also collected a number of materials from the scene. The man who was pushing the trolley is both a person of interest and witness in the probe.

The team investigating the incident had asked owners of structures on the street that the victim used in pushing the trolley to also offer them footage captured on their movements.

The incident came less than two weeks after five men stormed dusitD2 complex and killed more than 30 people and injured 28 others.

Warnings

The US Embassy in Nairobi continued to issue an alert calling for vigilance.

“The US Embassy reminds the public of the continued need for sustained vigilance in public spaces such as shopping malls, hotels, and places of worship,” read part of an alert re-issued on Saturday.

It called on its citizens to be aware of their surroundings, stay alert in locations frequented by tourists/Westerners, review their personal security plans

Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet later said it is critical that all citizens must step up their levels of alertness regarding their surroundings and provide information immediately to the police in case anything out of the ordinary is observed.

“We further advise that all hotel operators must obtain full details of their lodgers and restaurant operators must also step up their levels of alertness and security in their establishments,” he said.

“We also advise PSV operators to monitor the behaviour of their passengers and be wary of persons who may board with luggage and thereafter attempt to alight without the baggage.”

The police boss called on shopping mall operators as well as ushers at all houses of worship, educational institutions, and all other public places to frisk all persons entering their premises and promptly notify the police should they detect anything unusual for action.

He added police had stepped up alertness on major highways and that all police commanders have been instructed to apply to a court of law for forfeiture of any vehicle found with illegal immigrants and any form of contraband.