The scene of the minibus (orange exterior) explosion on the outskirts of Nairobi’s business district where twin blasts claimed at least 10 lives.
AFP/DPA/Reuters/Nairobi
Ten people were killed and more than 70 wounded yesterday in two bomb attacks in a busy market in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, the latest in a wave of unrest blamed on Islamist militants.
The twin bombings came as hundreds of British tourists were being evacuated from beach resorts near the port city of Mombasa after Britain’s Foreign Office and other nations issued new travel warnings.
The National Disaster Operation Centre (NDOC) said the first blast in the capital occurred next to a 14-seater matatu, or public minibus, and the second was inside a shop in Gikomba Market close to Nairobi’s central business district.
Outside the blood-spattered minibus, clothes littered a street that had been bustling with shoppers earlier in the day.
“I saw the explosion. People were running in all directions,” a woman at the scene told journalists. “I know some of the people who died.”
A spokesman at the Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi’s main hospital, said that eight bodies had been brought in and “more than 70” people admitted for medical treatment, many of them in a serious condition.
The NDOC then revised the death toll up to 10, while another hospital said it had received around 14 patients.
“Many of the injured are bleeding profusely. We need a lot of blood,” the spokesman, Simon Ithae, told AFP as the hospital issued an appeal for donors.
Nairobi police chief Benson Kibue confirmed that two bombs had been used, and the area was littered with debris including clothing hurled into overhead power and telephone lines.
“Two IEDs (improvised explosive devices) were detonated simultaneously,” Nairobi police chief Benson Kibue told reporters at the scene, trying to reassure an increasingly sceptical public that the security forces are in control. “Don’t panic. We are on top of things.”
Police also said two suspects had been arrested.
Earlier this month three people were killed and 86 wounded in twin bus blasts in Nairobi that were blamed on Islamic militant cells connected with Somalia’s Al Qaeda-linked Shebaab rebels.
The previous day, twin attacks left four dead in Mombasa.
Kenya has been targeted by the Shebaab since sending troops to war-torn Somalia in 2011. Kenyan soldiers are still posted in southern Somalia as part of an African Union force supporting the country’s fragile internationally-backed government.
On Thursday and yesterday, hundreds of British tourists were being evacuated from beach resorts near Mombasa following new warnings of terror attacks from Britain’s Foreign Office. France, Australia and the United States also issued similar warnings this week to avoid Mombasa, and in some cases, Nairobi.
Thomson and First Choice, which are owned by London-listed TUI Travel, Europe’s biggest tour operator, said they had also decided to cancel all flights to the coastal city until November.
“As a precautionary measure, we have also taken the decision to repatriate all customers currently on holiday in Kenya back to the UK,” Thomson and First Choice said in a statement.
The evacuation, which continued yesterday, involved nearly 450 holidaymakers, company sources said.
The Kenyan government has expressed “disappointment” and has accused countries that are telling tourists to stay away of “unfriendly acts”.
“Issuance of such travel advisories only plays to the whims of bad elements in society whose aim is to spread fear and panic,” the government said.
Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta meanwhile told journalists that national intelligence services had informed him there were no security threats to warrant travel advisories.
“Terrorism is not an evil that was born in Kenya. Terrorism is a worldwide phenomenon,” Kenyatta told a previously planned news conference held soon after the latest explosions.
Sam Ikwaye of the Kenya Association of Hotelkeepers and Caterers, said the evacuations were a “huge blow” to tourism, which directly or indirectly accounts for 14% of Kenya’s economic output and roughly 12% of the workforce.
“Yesterday night, 282 tourists flew out and today 300 more are going away,” he told Reuters.
Ikwaye said that beach hotels in the region were now facing a drop in revenue of up to 70%, and that he feared that “the decision by the British is likely to influence other countries to do the same”.
Last month Kenya confirmed that the number of foreign visitors to the country – a top safari and beach destination – slumped by 11% in 2013, when the country was gripped by fears of election-related political violence.
The current year is expected to also see a massive drop, particularly in the wake of the Shebaab’s high-profile attack on Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall last September in which at least 67 people were killed.
There have been no verified claims of responsibility for the latest wave of bombings – although Kenyan authorities have been engaged in a major security crackdown on suspected Shebaab supporters in Nairobi and Mombasa.
The operation has focused on Nairobi’s main Somali district Eastleigh, and residents have accused police of indiscriminately arresting people of Somali origin.
Gikomba Market is situated adjacent to Eastleigh.
Kenyan authorities had hoped for a respite to rebuild the struggling tourism industry.
One immediate commercial victim of yesterday’s bombings was a regional telecoms conference, East African Com, due to be held in Nairobi next week.
Organisers said security worries forced it to cancel the meeting, which attracts top industry executives.
Diplomats have privately said Kenya’s security forces have been hampered in their work by inter-agency rivalries in the past and also say the government has not done enough to reassure Kenyans and others that it is stepping up security in the wake of the Nairobi Westgate shopping mall assault.
The government says it has not been credited for all the attacks it says it has foiled, but instead is criticised for the few that get through.