The good news is that Kenya apprehended this bomber. The bad news is that this pair of somewhat amateurish, opportunistic free-lance jihadist attacks is almost certain not to be al-Shabaab’s main event in Kenya. Al-Shabaab has actually denied any connection to these attacks, which fall outside of its recent tendencies toward suicide attacks, and the group has specifically threatened Kenya with suicide bombings.
An update on this story. “Kenyan pleads guilty to grenade attack, being Shebab,” from Agence France-Presse, October 26:
A Kenyan man plead guilty Wednesday to involvement in a grenade attack in Nairobi and being a member of the Al-Qaeda linked Somali Shebab militant group.
Police arrested Elgiva Bwire Oliacha Tuesday in a Nairobi district and seized a cache of weapons including several grenades, ammunition and guns, after two grenade attacks shocked Kenya’s capital.
On Monday, one person was killed in a grenade attack at a Nairobi bus stop hours after several others were wounded when a grenade was detonated in a bar.
Bwire, aged 28 and from western Kenya, admitted guilt in court only to involvement in Monday night’s grenade attack at a bus station, as well as to possession of unlicensed weapons.
His case is due to be heard again on Friday, and he could face up to 15 years in prison.
Despite Bwire’s guilty plea, Shebab leaders continue to deny responsibility for the attacks, which wounded more than two dozen people.
Kenyan police have in the past been accused of using “violence and torture during interrogations,” according to US State Department reports.
Police have come under intense pressure to step up security following threats of retaliation by Shebab insurgents after Kenya’s military launched an assault against the rebels in the south of war-torn Somalia….