Police say likelihood of further attacks by Qaeda-linked groups
Kenyan and Ugandan police said there was a link between an explosion in Nairobi on Monday that killed three people and intelligence reports that showed there was a likelihood of further attacks by al-Qaeda-linked groups.
Ugandan security agencies had already said they were on high alert for strikes by insurgents after twin suicide bombings in Kampala on July 11, which killed 79 people watching the World Cup final on television.
The Somali rebel group al-Shabaab, which says it has links to al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was in retaliation for Uganda’s deployment of troops to the African Union Mission in Somalia protecting the fragile government they are fighting to dislodge.
Seventeen people have been detained for trial over the Kampala attacks.
"We believe there’s a connection between the threats we’re getting from al-Shabaab and other al-Qaeda affiliated groups and the attack in Nairobi," Uganda’s top police officer, Inspector General Kale Kayihura, told media on Tuesday.
"Following the July 11 attacks, the Nairobi terrorist act and the constant threats by al-Shabaab and other terrorists, there’s a strong possibility that these groups might want to repeat their diabolical plans and there’s information that these people want to carry out attacks on Kampala."
Kayihura said the Ugandan police were stepping up security at border points with Kenya and Sudan.
Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki said no efforts would be spared to ensure security was beefed up.
Kenyan police — who said they were not ruling out terrorism in their investigations — said the blast in Nairobi was set off when a man dropped a plastic bag as he was about to board a bus.
Converts to Islam
Police Commissioner Matthew Iteere said the explosion was caused by a Russian-made grenade, which the attacker, Albert Molanda, who had entered Kenya in October this year from Tanzania, had intended to transport to Kampala.
"Investigations have established that the man who was carrying the Russian-made grenade is Albert John Olando Mulanda, born in Mwanza, Tanzania," he told reporters.
"We have also established that the grenade was destined for Uganda. It is only that the man became nervous and dropped it and it exploded. He died," said Iteere, explaining that the Tanzanian arrived in the country in August.
"So far, what we can say is that the man was acting alone and he did not have accomplices. He had with him a small notebook which had some mobile phone contacts which we are trying to scrutinize," he added.
No group has so far claimed the blast, but Iteere said the motive could have been inspired by the utterances of al-Shabaab.
"In these incidents which have happened, we have found that most people perpetrating this type of crime are people who have recently converted to Islamic faith. These are the people who have been radicalized and indoctrinated," he said.
Twice hit by al-Qaeda-linked attacks, Kenya has long cast a wary eye at its lawless neighbor Somalia, where al-Shabaab militants have been waging a three-year insurgency against the Western-backed Somali government and want to impose a harsh version of sharia law.
Iteere said investigations showed that recent converts to Islam were behind one of the strikes by unidentified men who killed three police officers in attacks in Nairobi on Dec. 3. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation is helping in the probe.
Kayihura said Ugandan authorities were working with Kenyan and Tanzanian counterparts to prevent further attacks by extremists.