An explosion at a small food kiosk located near a police station in northeastern Kenya had killed four people and wounded several others on Monday.
The blast was said to have been caused by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) that had been planted at the hotel and was detonated as a crowd of people sat down to have a meal, police said.
“I condemn in the strongest terms, today’s cowardly and heinous terrorist attack at a hotel in Mandera town,” Mohamed Adan Khalif, the governor of Mandera County who confirmed the deaths, said in a statement.
“My heartfelt condolences and prayers to the victims and their families affected by this tragic incident. I equally wish the victims who sustained injuries a quick recovery as they receive treatment,” he added.
“We had a total of 15 people injured and in the process of taking some to hospital, including police officers, we lost two at that particular moment, one officer and one civilian. As they were being attended to, we lost two more police officers,” Thrones led Samwel Mutunga, the police chief of Mandera where the explosion occured.
East Africa-based extremist group Al-Shabab has been fingered for the attack.
The group hasn’t claimed responsibility for the explosion. In the past, it has staged major attacks in Kenya and neighboring Somalia.
However, the motive behind al-Shabaab’s relentless assaults on Kenya has been traced to Kenya’s decision to deploy troops to Somalia in October 2011 in response to a series of kidnappings and security threats along the border region.