Kenya issues Easter terror warning
A Kenyan girl reads the names of the victims caused by the 1998 bombing of the United States Embassy in Kenya at the 7th August Memorial Park in Nairobi.
As Kenyans prepare to celebrate Easter the police force has dampened the mood by issuing a warning that al-Shabaab, a Somali Islamist insurgent group with links to al-Qaeda, is planning attacks over the weekend.
“We wish to inform the public that police headquarters has received intelligence that the al Shabaab terrorist group has threatened to carry out violent attacks on certain targets in our major population centres,” said police commissioner Matthew Iteere in a statement.
Shopping malls, churches and hotels are suspected to be the most likely targets of any attack.
Kenya shares a long and barely-guarded border with southern Somalia where al-Shabaab is strong controlling territory in the absence of a functioning national government.
In 1998 and 2002 Kenya suffered al-Qaeda attacks on the US Embassy in Nairobi and an Israeli hotel in Mombasa. Al-Shabaab has threatened to attack Kenya in the past and last year launched its first assault outside of Somalia killing more than 70 football fans in the Ugandan capital Kampala during the World Cup final.