Terrorism in Kenya

Kenya has been the scene of various attacks attributed to terrorist elements.^[1] In 1980, the Jewish-owned Norfolk hotel was attacked by the PLO. In 1998, the US embassy in Nairobi was bombed, as was the Israeli-owned Paradise hotel four years later. In 2013, the militant group Al-Shabaab killed over 80 people at Nairobi's Westgate Shopping Mall.

Background

In July 1976, during the Operation Entebbe hostage crisis, Kenya briefly served as a refuelling stage for the Israeli C-130 Hercules transport planes on their way back to Israel after the Entebbe raid. Perceived as Western interest and Israeli support, this incident led to anger from Islamic extremists.

Major incidents

1975 Nairobi bombing & J M Kariuki murder

In early 1975, the first bombs to strike independent Kenya exploded. In February, there were two blasts in central Nairobi, inside the Starlight nightclub and in a travel bureau near the Hilton hotel. The day after the second explosion, JM Kariuki revealed in Parliament that his car had been hit "by what seemed to be bullets".There were rumours of a botched attempt on his life. They were followed by a more serious blast in a Nairobi bus on 1 March, which killed 30 people. Despite a massive public outcry and a police manhunt, no arrests were made. For several days thereafter, the city lived in fear, destabilised by numerous telephone bomb hoaxes.

On 2 March 1975, the day after the OTC bus blast, security officials including General Service Unit commander Ben Gethi publicly accosted JM Kariuki outside the Hilton hotel. Various police officers, including European police reservist Patrick Shaw, had been following JM throughout the day. Gethi asked Kariuki to accompany the security officials into a convoy of cars and took him to an unknown destination.^[2][3]

The bombings stopped after the news of the disappearance and murder of JM Kariuki became public.^[4][5]

1980 Norfolk Hotel bombing

The second bombing happened on the Norfolk Hotel on New Year’s Eve 1980. In that attack, a bomb flattened the Norfolk Hotel in Nairobi, killing 20 people and injuring 80. Responsibility for the attack was claimed by an Arab group that said it was seeking retaliation for Kenya's allowing Israeli troops to refuel in Nairobi during the raid on Entebbe Airport in Uganda four years earlier to rescue hostages from a hijacked aircraft.

According to reports about that incident, international security agencies in conjunction with the Kenya Police had a prime suspect within hours. He was identified as 34-year-old Qaddura Mohammed Abdel al-Hamid of Morocco, and he was said to have checked into the Norfolk Hotel in Nairobi in the last week of 1980. Al-Hamid was found to have paid for his room up until New Year's Day, but slipped away on the afternoon of 31 December. He had boarded a plane for Saudi Arabia by the time the guests at the Norfolk assembled for a New Year's Eve dinner.^[6]

1998 Embassy bombing

The bombing took place on 7 August 1998 at around 1030hrs EAT.

Later in an interview, then-US ambassador Prudence Bushnell said that a self-identified al-Qaeda operative had come into the Nairobi embassy in December 1997, 8 months before the attack, and warned that it would be blown up with a truck bomb.^[7]

2002 Kikambala bombing

On 28 November 2002 there were missile attack on an Israel Plane after take off from Mombasa airport. Subsequently there was an attack on Kikambala Hotel when they were receiving Israeli tourists.

The blast occurred just after some 60 visitors had checked into the hotel, all of them from Israel, hotel officials said. 13 were killed and 80 injured. Ten Kenyans died, nine of whom were employed by the hotel, most of them were said to be traditional dancers who came to welcome the 140 guests arriving from Israel by state-chartered jet and three Israelis, two of whom were children. In an overnight operation that went on into the early hours, four Israeli military Hercules planes with teams of doctors and psychologists flew into Mombasa and evacuated injured Israeli tourists and all those who wanted to leave.^[8]

Almost simultaneously, two shoulder-launched Strela 2 (SA-7) surface-to-air missiles were fired at another chartered Boeing 757 airliner owned by Israel-based Arkia Airlines as it took off from Moi International Airport.^[1] The Arkia charter company had a regular weekly service flying tourists between Tel Aviv and Mombasa. Kenyan police discovered a missile launcher and two missile casings in the Changamwe area of Mombasa, about two kilometres (1.25 miles) from the airport.

Police have been seeking MR Bajnaf Mselem Swaleh Mahdi Khamisi, who they believe may lead them to Fazul, the main suspect.^[9]

2012 Al-Shabaab attacks

In October 2011, a coordinated operation between the Somali military and the Kenyan military began against the Al-Shabaab group of insurgents in southern Somalia.^[10][11] The mission was officially led by the Somali army, with the Kenyan forces providing a support role.^[11] Since then, a series of explosions have rocked various areas in Kenya, bombings which are believed to have been retaliatory attacks by Al-Shabaab.^[12] In early June 2012, Kenyan forces were formally integrated into AMISOM.^[13]

According to US Embassy in the past 2011/2012, there have been at least 17 attacks involving grenades or explosive devices in Kenya. At least 48 people died in these attacks, and around 200 people were injured. Nine of these attacks occurred in North Eastern Province, including locations in Dadaab, Wajir, and Garissa. Four attacks occurred in Nairobi, and four in Mombasa. Targets included police stations and police vehicles, nightclubs and bars, churches, a religious gathering, a downtown building of small shops, and a bus station. A more recent attack involved two simultaneous assaults on churches in Garissa on 1 July 2012. In this attack, 17 people were killed and about 50 people were injured.^[14]

2013 Westgate Mall shooting

On 21 September 2013, Al-Shabaab associated gunmen targeted and shot customers at Nairobi's Westgate Shopping Mall. Over 80 people were reportedly killed in the attack.

2015 Garissa attack

In April 2015, gunmen stormed the Garissa University College, killing almost 150 people and wounding several others. The attackers claimed to be from the Al-Shabaab militant group, and indicated that they were retaliating over non-Muslims occupying Muslim territory.^[15] The militants took several students hostage, freeing Muslims but withholding Christians. Over 500 students were still unaccounted for.^[16]

Other incidents related to terrorism

• 13 June 2010, during a "NO" campaign rally, a petrol bomb was thrown into the crowds as the meeting dispersed at dusk, sparking a stampede as people fled. Some witnesses reported that there had been two separate explosions, in Uhuru Park in the centre of the city.Five people were killed and as many as 75 were injured. The meeting was called by a church leader to campaign against a proposed new constitution in a referendum.^[17]

• 17 September 2011, a grenade shell was recovered within the premises of the office of the Prime Minister. However, police cooled off the issue saying it was not targeting anybody.^[18]

• 30 September 2012, the Sunday school of St Polycarp's church in Nairobi was attacked with grenades. According to newspaper reports, one child was killed. Kenyan police blamed the attack on Al-Shabaab sympathizers.^[19]

• 14 March 2014, in the Kenyan city of Mombasa, two terrorists were arrested while driving a car carrying two improvised bombs.^[20]

• 19 March 2014, Kenyan police unintentionally parked a car outside their office that was carrying a massive cache of terrorist explosives, including 130 pounds of plastic.^[21]

• 1 April 2014, in the Eastleigh district of Nairobi, six people were killed and dozens more injured when terrorists exploded bombs at two separate locations about three hundred meters apart.^[22]

• 9 April 2014, it was reported that twelve shops in the Nairobi city center were being investigated for funneling money to terrorists.^[23]

• April 2014, a terrorist car bomb that exploded in Nairobi's Pangani quarter killed four people.^[24]

• 3 May 2014, twin terrorist attacks in the port city of Mombasa killed three people.^[25]

• 4 May 2014, on the Thika Highway in Nairobi, terrorists exploded homemade bombs on two commuter buses, nearly simultaneously and about a kilometer apart. According to the report, at least three people were killed and at least sixty-two others injured.^[26]

• 16 May 2014, at Gikomba Market in Nairobi, twin explosions claimed the lives of more than ten people.^[27]

• 23 May 2014, a grenade was thrown at a police vehicle carrying two suspects in the City of Mombasa. Two people were injured.

• 16 June 2014, at least 48 people were killed when suspected Shebab militants from Somalia stormed into a Kenyan coastal town and launched a major assault on a police station, hotels and government offices, officials said. Around 50 heavily-armed gunmen drove into the town of Mpeketoni, near the coastal island and popular tourist resort of Lamu, late on Sunday. Witnesses said they first attacked a police station, before starting to randomly shoot at civilians, some of whom had been watching the World Cup in local bars and hotels.

• In late 2014, two attacks believed to have been carried out by Al Shabaab killed 64 persons in Mandera County.

On 22 November 2014, gunmen attacked a bus traveling from Mandera to Nairobi, killing 28 persons, mostly teachers and government workers heading to Nairobi for the December holidays.^[28]

• On 2 December 2014, Al-Shabaab militants attacked and killed a further 36 quarry workers, many of whom were non-Muslims, near Mandera Town.^[29]

Anti-terrorism legislation

The Kenyan Parliament is working on legislation focused on reducing terrorism.^[1]

There has been opposition from Muslim, NGO and human rights groups. The bill aims to allow police to tap private communications, seize property and access the bank details of suspected terrorists.^[30]

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki approved the Prevention of Terrorist Act 2012, Kenya's first piece of anti-terrorist legislation to be passed, on 2 October 2012.^[31]

Dynamics

At the urging of Al-Shabaab,^[12] an increasing number of terrorist attacks in Kenya have been carried out by local Kenyans, many of whom are recent converts to Islam.^[32] Estimates in 2012 placed the figure of Kenyan fighters at around 10% of Al-Shabaab's total forces.^[33]

Referred to as the "Kenyan Mujahideen" by Al-Shabaab's core members,^[32] the converts are typically young and overzealous, poverty making them easier targets for the outfit's recruitment activities. Because the Kenyan insurgents have a different profile from the Somali and Arab militants that allows them to blend in with the general population of Kenya, they are also often harder to track. Reports suggest that Al-Shabaab is attempting to build an even more multi-ethnic generation of fighters in the larger region.^[33]

One such recent convert who helped mastermind the Kampala bombings but now cooperates with the Kenyan police believes that in doing so, the group is essentially trying to use local Kenyans to do its "dirty work" for it while its core members escape unscathed.^[32] According to diplomats, Muslim areas in coastal Kenya and Tanzania, such as Mombasa and Zanzibar, are also especially vulnerable for recruitment.^[33]

See also

• 1998 United States embassy bombings
• 2002 Mombasa attacks
• 2012 Series of Grenade Attack in Kenya
• 2015 Garissa University College attack
• Aboud Rogo
• Crime in Kenya

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Terrorism in Kenya.