One person was killed and 29 were wounded in two grenade attacks in Nairobi on Monday, raising fears Shebab fighters were making good on their vow to retaliate for Kenya's week-old incursion in Somalia.
At least one person was killed and 15 were wounded when someone hurled a grenade during rush hour at a bus stop in the centre of the Kenyan capital, just hours after 14 people were wounded in a grenade attack on a pub nearby.
"One person has died and several have been injured," Peter Mabeya, a senior police official, told AFP.
"The blast occurred shortly after 8pm as many commuters were heading home," a police officer on the scene said.
Fifteen people wounded in the attack were hospitalised, including two in serious condition, said Richard Leresian of the Kenyatta hospital.
"When the area cleared we moved closer and we saw some people lying down writhing in pain while two appeared unconscious," said Justus Mwanzia, who runs a small stall nearby.
"People tried to assist them to hospital but they realised one of them was badly injured and it appeared like he was dead," he said.
The attack was not far from the Mwauras bar, a busy pub where the first blast occurred.
Police said al Qaeda-linked Shebab rebels could have been involved.
"We are dealing with a dangerous group -- you know Al Shebab have their sympathisers here, and maybe they are the people we are dealing with," national police chief Mathew Iteere said referring to the bar attack.
"The person who lobbed that grenade into the pub was not seen by anybody. ... We are following crucial leads but have not made any arrest so far."
In Washington State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said: "We have been concerned about this," adding that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been worried "particularly about activities of Al-Shebab."
MILITARY ACTION
On Saturday the US embassy in Nairobi warned of an "imminent threat" of attacks possibly targeting foreigners, one week after Kenyan forces crossed into Somalia to hunt down Shebab fighters.
Somalia's president said Monday that he opposed Kenya's week-old military assault against Islamists in the south of his country.
While the Islamists had already threatened revenge attacks, the public opposition of Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed further raised the stakes over the controversial cross-border incursion.
"Somalia's government and its people will not allow forces entering its soil without prior agreement," Sharif told reporters in Mogadishu. "There is only one thing we know about the Kenyan forces, and that is their offer of training to the national army of Somalia."
Kenya's unprecedented military incursion eight days ago, launched after several foreigners were abducted on its soil and taken across the border, stunned the region. Its troops and tanks have pushed some 100 kilometres (60 miles) into southern Somalia, areas controlled by the Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab.
'IMMINENT' ATTACK
Earlier, the US embassy cited "credible information of an imminent threat of terrorist attacks directed at prominent Kenyan facilities and areas where foreigners are known to congregate, such as malls and night clubs."
"We within the police service are doing our best. We have heightened physical security to most of our vital institutions," Iteere told reporters.
"This is our second week in our engagement across the border, and these are some of the things by way of repercussions which we anticipated."
At the hospital, victims told of panic in the pub following the attack.
Jonah Mwangi, a minibus conductor, said he had gone to purchase cigarettes and decided to have a drink.
"I wish I had bought the cigarettes and left. I decided to have a drink and that is when this explosion happened. It was so loud and immediately I started feeling pain and blood splashing at me and we were just trying to get out," said Mwangi, his face heavily bandaged.
"Because there was one entrance, it took a lot of time because the entrance was so small," he said.
Nairobi police chief Antony Kibuchi said he had "heightened security patrols and enforcement in the city".
But there were few concrete signs of increased policing in Nairobi. Major shopping centres either have no security measures or the same as before - cursory bag checks and searches underneath cars.
Last week, Kenya sent troops into Somalia to hunt Shebab rebels it blames for attacks on its territory and several abductions, including a British tourist, a French woman who has since died in captivity and two Spanish aid workers.
The radical Islamist Shebab, who deny kidnapping foreigners, have repeatedly warned of bloody retaliation against Kenya.
There have also been sporadic explosions including grenade attacks in Nairobi in recent years by unknown assailants.
