Nairobi Explosion

So, a day after a rather unpleasant experience, an explosion went off in downtown Nairobi.

The Nation reports the following:

“By any standards, it was a very small explosion. We are not down-playing the incident but it even did not blow up tyres of a vehicle that was just two metres away.”

So far, preliminary investigations have showed, according to police, that no combustion or high explosives have been detected from the scene.

Now, I don't know that exploding tires should be the determining factor of whether an explosion is big, but I absolutely agree it wasn't nearly as large as first reports made it out to be. One person has died and about 40 people were injured.

Some interesting things to note:

1. Suspicion falls on two groups of people: suspected Mungiki members and Somali radicals. Initial reports talked of suicide bombers with dynamite. That was clearly an over-reaction, and pure speculation.
   
   
2. Location, location, location. Yes, this is a semi-busy bus terminal. But it is far from the busiest. As a terrorist attack, the less-than luxurious Ambassadeur Hotel seems an odd choice. Furthermore, the explosion seems to have happened outside of the little-known City Gate Restaurant, an unlikely place to try to impact a maximum amount of casualties. Whatever the target was, it was not the sidewalk in front of the City Gate Restaurant.
   
   
3. I happened to be in town at the time of the explosion. I was coming from the police station, where no one seemed concerned about what was happening, walked about a half-block away from where the explosion was and boarded a bus--all without hearing a thing or seeing any panic.
   

Kenya in the "War on Terrorism," 2

The Nation does a special on America's war on terrorism, with its own exclusive report of Kenya's transfer of terror suspects to Ethiopia and Somalia. Unfortunately, the article is so jam-packed with details that the narrative glue comes apart, and it's hard to fully process the article once you've read it.

In an editorial, the Nation says,

Yes, terrorism is a clear and present danger. Indeed, during the last decade
Kenyans have twice been attacked by terrorists. It is important to catch the
culprits and bring them to book, but we have laws and due process must be seen
to have been followed.

Shrugging off the rule of law and repeatedly being seen as unfair and unjust in its treatment of Muslims could turn out to be a liability for this government. I think this government should be asking itself, how do we convince the moderate Muslims that we're doing the right thing?

I don't think anyone is asking that question, which might turn out to be a major strategic error.

Kenya in the "War on Terrorism"

In my previous post on monuments in Nairobi, I did not mention the August 7th Memorial for the 1998 American Embassy bombing. It's a small park in downtown Nairobi where the old American embassy once stood. There's an information center about the events of that day, with horrific pictures and pointed text.

(Unfortunately, while the information center does create a pretty moving depiction of that day, its displays have a number of embarrasing misspellings, awkward phrasings, as well as highly pixelated photographs.)

Since the bombing, Kenya has been a major ally in America's global war on Al Qaeda and its followers and sympathizers.

Recently, the Kenyan government has turned over a terror suspect to the American government, which sent him to Guantanamo Bay. He is believed to be involved in a 2002 terrorist bombing of a Mombasa Hotel as well as the attempted downing of an Israeli airliner.

Prompts some interesting questions:

1) Why wasn't he tried by the Kenyan government for the crimes he committed on Kenyan soil?

2) Why was he transferred to the American government? The Israeli government would seem to have greater jurisdiction, considering a number of its civilians were killed and its airliner was targeted. Or do Americans now have jurisdiction over all Al Qaeda terrorist suspects everywhere?

There's also allegations that the U.S. is operating a secret prison in Ethiopia and that Kenya has sent suspects there to be interrogated by U.S. agents. Ethiopia has admitted holding 41 terror suspects there, and U.S. agents admit that they've done interrogations there, but denies it's a secret U.S.-run prison. (here and here)

Egypt's now recalling its teachers from Kenya, afraid that they'll be accused of being terror suspects.