Police hunt owner of city explosive device

The police seal off the scene of Saturday's attack on Tom Mboya/Latema Street junction. [John Muchucha, Standard]

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

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

The team handling the case were sifting through security cameras near the scene to try and trace the movements of the porter who was carrying the luggage.

The porter 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 7pm.

Deliver luggage

The porter told the police he was approached at the Baba Dogo bus stop by a woman in a hijab, who asked him to take the luggage to Kenya Cinema. The woman paid him Sh100.

The money is among evidence now being analysed.

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

“The luggage exploded minutes after she left,” said the porter, Joseph Okinyi, who was treated at Kenyatta National Hospital and discharged.

The police have established that many nails were 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 porter is both a person of interest and witness in the probe.

Detectives have requested owners of structures along the street the porter used to  provide them with CCTV footages to aid investigation.

The incident came less than two weeks after five men stormed dusitD2 complex and killed more than 20 people and injured 28 others.

And the US Embassy in Nairobi has issued 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.

Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet later said it was 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.

Full details

“We further advise that all hotel operators must obtain full details of their lodgers and restaurant operators must also step up their level 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 malls, 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.

He added that the 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.