We must all watch against this insecurity
Six people have died so far after a bomb exploded in a matatu near Pangani Girls High School.
Police and witnesses suggest it was planted by some criminal.
What is not clear is whether or not he or she was still in the matatu at the time of the blast, which left 30 people injured.
The Pangani attack on Saturday at 6pm, is just the latest in a string of strikingly similar attacks in various parts of the country over the last one week.
A couple, their two children, and two other people escaped death narrowly after a terrorist hurled a grenade at their shop in Wajir Town the previous day.
Luckily for the intended victims, the grenade exploded a few metres from the shop, minimising its impact.
Barely two hours earlier, a Land Cruiser carrying tourists to Mombasa Island was attacked in similar fashion near Likoni.
By a stroke of luck, the grenade hit the vehicle’s side window but failed to explode.
On Tuesday afternoon, five police officers and three members of the public were shot dead at Liboi, near the Kenya-Somalia border after their vehicle was ambushed by terrorists.
At a cursory glance, these incidents may appear unrelated, or even isolated given the distance between the affected areas—Liboi, Mombasa, Wajir and Nairobi.
But the style of execution and the devices involved suggest that they could be linked to a network of terrorists determined to cause havoc.
By downplaying the incidents as unrelated and isolated, we may well be playing into the attackers’ hands because that is how they intended us to view their evil plot.
Our security agencies must move quickly and unravel the forces behind these attacks before they claim more lives.
We also urge all Nairobians to exercise extra vigilance especially during this festive season to avoid being caught up in such attacks.
Operators of public vehicles, shopping malls and other places must conduct thorough checks before allowing people into their vehicles or premises.
And we must all take the earliest opportunity to report suspicious characters to the police.
nneditor@ke.nationmedia.com