October 2011- Kenya sends troops to neighboring Somalia to fight the Islamic extremist rebels, Al-Shabaab, The militant group allegedly reacted with vows to carry out terrorist attacks in Kenya.
30th 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.
21st 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.
14th March 2014- In the Kenyan city of Mombasa, two terrorists were arrested while driving a car carrying two improvised bombs.
19th 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.
1st April 2014- In Eastleigh, six people were killed and dozens more injured when terrorists exploded bombs at two separate locations about three hundred meters apart.
23rd April 2014- A car bomb that exploded in Pangani killed four people.
3rd May 2014, In Mombasa a grenade was thrown in a bus in Mombasa leaving four people dead and another 15 wounded. There was a second blast near a beach-front hotel, but no-one was hurt.
4th May 2014- On Thika Highway homemade bombs exploded on two commuter buses, nearly simultaneously and about a kilometer apart. According to the report, at least three people were killed and at least fifty others injured.
In early 1975, the first bombs to strike independent Kenya exploded in central Nairobi. Now 39 years later and Kenya is seeing more blasts than ever before with 4 blasts in a single weekend. Panic gripped the city after two blasts went off on separate buses along the Thika superhighway on Sunday evening. Casualties were transferred from Neema Hospital to Aga Khan, Guru Nanak and Kenyatta National Hospital.
The first explosion was at a Githurai-bound bus near Blue Springs hotel. The second explosion was on a Kasarani-bound bus just as it negotiated the Roysambu underpass. Bomb experts arrived at both scenes though the heavy traffic snarl up delayed the arrival of emergency services.
The government security has been criticized as Kenyans attempt to make sense of a senseless situation. ODM Kenya appealed to the President to start the process of moving out of Somalia, while others demand revenge and more security precautions.
Kenya security forces promise to halt attacks by ‘militant Islamists’ has not been fulfilled despite the arrests of some 2,000 people, mainly ethnic Somalis, in the capital last month. The security sweep has led to tension between the government and the Somali community and has been heavily criticized by human rights groups who accuse the police of profiling Somalis, detaining suspects without trial, denying them representation, extortion, circumventing the courts to deport Somalis back home and holding the suspects in inhumane conditions.
#ThikaRoadBlast is trending on twitter with Kenyans commenting on the blast, criticizing the state of security in Kenya and condolences to all who have been affected. @taurusmusik said It’s time the government did something about the security issue, we cannot afford to lose any more lives #ThikaRoadBlast. @teresiayulu appeals to the National Disaster Operations Centre to educate the public on how to react: @NDOCKenya You need to mount a passenger education campaign on what to look out for when they board buses.
By Ondi Madete-http://www.upnairobi.com/dt_portfolio/thika-blasts-devastates-nairobi/
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