Kenya Grenade Attack on Church Kills 1, Wounds 16

A grenade thrown right into a downtown Nairobi church has killed one person and injured 16.  Police are investigating, but there are reports the attack will have been the results of an internal church dispute.

Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe described to VOA what happened just because the pastor of God's House of Miracles International Church in Nairobi's Ngara area was concluding his early morning service.

“One of the persons, who was camouflaged as a worshiper, hurled a grenade and he ran out of the church.  He was pursued, but he was armed with a handgun and fired at people that were pursuing him.”

This follows an April 23 statement by the U.S. embassy in Nairobi warning it had “received credible information about a probable attack on Nairobi hotels and prominent Kenyan government buildings.”

The statement said the attack's timing was not known, but that “the potential attack is within the last stages of planning.”

Police spokesman Kiraithe told VOA it truly is too early to establish who was chargeable for Sunday's attack.

“A combined team of the anti-terrorism police unit, the forensic experts from CID (Criminal Investigation Division) headquarters and the Nairobi area police commander are all at the ground. They're conducting the investigations. The motive of the attack has not yet been established,” said Kiraithe.

Earlier this month, two grenade attacks on Kenya's coast killed one person and injured many others.

These incidents are the newest of several attacks and kidnappings because the civil war in neighboring Somalia rages on. Last October Kenyan troops joined within the effort to battle the al-Shabab militant group, that is attempting to wrest control of Somalia far from the transitional government there.

Al-Shabab has threatened to retaliate against Kenya's involvement in Somalia.

Kiraithe says he cannot confirm whether Sunday's grenade attack was completed by al-Shabab, saying, in his words, that it's “rather unlikely that it's an al-Shabab strike.”  

Officials have, in Kiraithe's words, “serious doubts” that the incident is expounded to the U.S. embassy's warning, but they've not ruled it out.

“There are indications that it can be an internal strife in the church itself.”

According to 1 media report, the land on which the church stands is in dispute.

Kiraithe says police have an in depth description of the person that conducted the attack.  He says Sunday's attack shouldn't be seen as sectarian violence directed against the Christian church.

Calls to the God's House of Miracles International Church went unanswered.

From WhatNewsToday.net

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