Security agents are on high alert after intelligence reports indicated that Al-Shabaab militants were planning attacks in Kenya and other African countries with their soldiers to Somalia. Information from Kenyan intelligence agencies and the 2014 US Global Threat Assessment report indicate that government buildings and other installations could be targeted. Also targeted are Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Uganda because of those countries' troop contributions to the African Union peace-keeping force in Somalia.Mr David Kimaiyo, the Inspector-General of Police, Thursday said that security had been beefed up in the areas identified as potential targets.
"We have our intelligence reports and have enhanced security across the country for some time now. It is not as a result of the warning issued on Wednesday," he said.
Mr Kimaiyo insisted that the beefing up of security was not as a result of the latest reports. A joint team made up of officers drawn from the National Intelligence Service (NIS), Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU) and the Criminal Intelligence Unit (CIU) have covertly been operating over the past few days in the places identified as terrorist risks.
On Wednesday last week, a team of 20 officers from the General Service Unit's Recce Squad was deployed at a shopping mall as a precautionary measure.
One embassy in the outskirts of the city centre also wrote to the police requesting enhanced security. In its letter, the embassy said it feared that some of its interests in the Horn of Africa and in East Africa could be targeted by terrorists. Said part of the letter: "This Embassy received warning that the terrorists group Al-Shabaab is preparing an armed terrorist attack... The Embassy therefore requests the relevant Kenyan authorities to immediately strengthen and enhance the security of the embassy's compound."
Information from the police indicate that terrorists could be planning two simultaneous attacks.
Already, airports, especially Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, have introduced tougher security measures which require that all vehicles be stopped and searched at entry points while the occupants should alight for frisking.
Among the new rules is a requirement that all airline passengers arrive at the airport an hour before the recommended reporting time to ensure they have sufficient time for the security checks. The security standard was raised a level higher two weeks after a small explosion at the airport which was blamed on security lapse.