Star Photographer Philip Kamakya is removed from the blast scene |
NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 30 – A grenade attack killed one
child and wounded nine others in a Nairobi church on Sunday, a day after
Islamist fighters abandoned their last bastion in neighbouring Somalia in the
face of an assault by Kenyan and other troops.
The blast occurred during a service for young children
at the Anglican St. Polycarp church, which lies in Pangani on the outskirts of
the Kenyan capital.
Blood-stained children’s jackets and shoes lay
scattered on the floor, surrounded by remnants of metal walls that were broken
and twisted by the force of the explosion.
“One child has died and three others have been
seriously injured,” Nairobi police chief Moses Nyakwama said. “We suspect it
was a grenade.”
A church official said nine children had been wounded.
“The children who attend this service are aged between
six and 10… we usually divide them according to their ages,” said Livingstone
Muiruri. “They had just started the morning session when the explosion
occurred.”
“We were in the main church so we all ran there to
assist the kids,” he said. “We have nine children admitted to hospital.”
Janet Wanja was just entering the church when the
blast shook the building.
“I heard a loud explosion and then heard kids
screaming,” she said. “I am traumatised by what I saw, kids with injuries and
blood all over. “Why are they attacking the church?”
Police were also investigating the possibility that
the blast was a result of a bomb that had been placed in the building earlier,
Head of Police Operations in Nairobi, Wilfred Mbithi said.
The church lies next to the Eastleigh quarter,
nicknamed “little Mogadishu” because most residents are either Somali refugees
or Kenyans of Somali origin.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the
attack, the latest in a string of grenade attacks, shootings and bomb blasts
that have rocked Kenya since it sent troops into southern Somalia in October
2011 to crush bases of Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab fighters, who have vowed
revenge.
The Kenyan intervention came in retalitation for suspected
Shabaab attacks on its soil.
Sunday’s blast came a day after the Shabaab retreated
from their last stronghold in Somalia, leaving the southern port city of
Kismayu that has been a vital economic lifeline for the Islamists.
The fall of the port was the latest in a string of
major losses of territory for the militia, which has vowed revenge and has
switched to guerilla tactics in areas where it has been driven from fixed
positions.
Observers say the loss of Kismayu would leave the
Shabaab, who once controlled 80 percent of the country, unable to retain large
swathes of territory.
The blast occurred during a service for young children
at the Anglican St. Polycarp church
Shabaab spokesman Rage warned on Saturday that the militia would remain
a threat.
Courtesy of Capitalfm.co.ke
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