Kenya's 50th anniversary marred

Four people have died and 36 are wounded after a bomb attack on a Nairobi bus which is the latest atrocity to mar Kenya's 50th anniversary celebrations.

An injured at the Kenyatta National Hospital, Kenya

Authorities say four people have been killed after a grenade was thrown onto a bus in Nairobi. (AAP)

Thirteen people have been killed in four attacks in Kenya during week-long celebrations to mark the country's 50th anniversary of independence, including the first attack on tourists in two years.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks - the most recent of which was an explosion on a Nairobi bus that killed four people on Saturday - and there have been no arrests.

Kenya has been the target of sustained attacks since the army sent troops into neighbouring Somalia to fight the country's al-Qaeda-linked Shebab insurgents in October 2011.

Eastern Kenya, along the 700km border with Somalia, has been particularly hard hit.

Experts are reluctant to draw any link between the armed conflict with the Shebab and the latest series of attacks. One Western observer told AFP that, as yet, there was "no evidence" to link the attacks.

Late on Friday, one person was killed and three injured in a double explosion at a market in the town of Wajir, some 100km from the Somali border.

On Tuesday, eight people were killed, including five policeman, in the Garissa region some 20 kilometres from the Somalian frontier after their vehicle was attacked in an apparent ambush.

Another policeman is missing following the attack.

Saturday's bus attack blew the vehicle apart, turning it into a mangled metal skeleton and sending shrapnel flying through the air. Four people died and 36 were wounded.

There was also a rare attack on tourists during the week in the popular tourist location of Mombasa, a predominantly Muslim city.

A grenade thrown at a minibus transporting British tourists hit a window, but did not explode. It was the first attack on tourists since 2011.

The British tourists were en route to the famous Masai Mara safari park.

Many attacks remain unclaimed, though the finger of suspicion is often pointed at jihadists.

However, the authorities in the border regions and several other areas of Kenya know there are sometimes serious conflicts between tribes caused by issues such as access to water or grazing land, which can be fuelled by local politicians.

These conflicts, especially in areas where there is deadly weaponry, regularly escalate.


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Source: AAP

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