* Gunman hurls grenade at church service before fleeing
* Blast targets Christian worshippers near city centre
* No claim of responsibility or blame by government yet
* Kenya plagued by attacks since sending troops into Somalia
(Adds police saying gunman hurled grenade, pastor wounded)
By James Macharia
NAIROBI, April 29 (Reuters) – A gunman detonated a grenade
in a Nairobi church on Sunday, killing one worshipper and
wounding 16 in the latest in a series of attacks in Kenya since
it sent troops into Somalia to crush Islamist militants blamed
for cross-border raids.
Nairobi has said al Shabaab militants, who merged with al
Qaeda earlier this year, are behind the surge in violence
and kidnappings that has threatened tourism in east Africa’s
biggest economy and wider regional destabilisation.
Police said the pastor of the church was concluding the
service when a man who had “camouflaged” himself as a worshipper
threw the grenade and then ran out into the street.
Some worshippers pursued the man who then drew what police
said was a 9mm pistol and fired at pursuers before escaping in a
maze of alleys in a busy market and residential area known as
Ngara a few km (miles) away from downtown Nairobi.
“One person has been confirmed dead and sixteen others
including the presiding pastor were injured. The motive of the
attack has not yet been established,” police spokesman Eric
Kiraithe said in a statement.
A bloodied footstep marked the entrance of the God’s House
of Miracle Church, an edifice of corrugated iron sheets which
police estimated could accommodate more than 200 people.
The pastor’s glass stand was shattered and shards from the
stand and stained-glass windows were strewn about the floor next
to a mangled flower arrangement and overturned plastic chairs.
A male worshipper sobbed as he covered his face with a brown
handkerchief, shaking his head at a request for an interview.
Worshippers carried the wounded to cars that rushed them to
hospitals, and later huddled speaking in hushed tones as armed
police ring-fenced the church to keep a curious crowd at bay.
“It just happened, we do not know actually how it started
but we just heard a blast,” said Hebo Hamala, a church elder.
The blast resembled two separate attacks at different bus
stations and a bar in the capital that killed a total of 10
people and wounded many more last month and in October, a week
after Kenyan troops swept into southern Somalia.
THROW GRENADE AND RUN
“We have seen similar attacks before, where people throw
grenades and run,” deputy police spokesman Charles Owino said.
In late March, one person was killed when a grenade was
tossed at an open-air Christian gathering near the port city of
Mombasa, a major tourist destination.
Minutes later a grenade went off at a bar near Mombasa’s
main stadium but no casualties were reported.
Al Shabaab stopped short of claiming responsibility for the
coastal attacks, but said in a statement at the time that
Kenya’s security depended on its military activities in Somalia.
“The more Kenyan troops continue to persecute innocent
Muslims of Somalia, the less secure Kenyan cities will be; and
the more oppression the Muslims of Somalia feel, the more
constricted Kenyan life will be,” it said.
There have been similar attacks near the border with Somalia
since Kenya’s military incursion.
Ethiopia has also dispatched forces into Somalia to support
the anarchic country’s shaky government, which barely holds the
capital Mogadishu with the help of the African Union’s force.
Somalia has been in shambles since warlords toppled dictator
Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. Fighting has killed more than 21,000
people since al Shabaab launched its insurgency in 2007, and
possibly over one million in 20 years.
The rebels are fighting to topple the Mogadishu government
and impose a harsh brand of sharia (Islamic law) on Somalia.
(Additional reporting by Humphrey Malalo and Ben Makori;
Editing by Mark Heinrich)
