Kenyan bomb disposal experts yesterday found and safely detonated an explosive left over from the deadly extremist attack on a Nairobi luxury hotel complex.
The Kenya Red Cross said no one appeared to be missing after it had checked nearly 100 reported cases.
Nine people have been arrested in connection with the attack. All five militants who stormed the complex on Tuesday were killed, officials said, and a major hunt was under way to find those who had helped organise it.
The Kenyan government said its quick reaction to the assault on the DusitD2 complex reflected improvements in its ability to respond to such brazen assaults on civilian targets.
It was “much better handled” in comparison with the 2013 attack on the nearby Westgate Mall, said Information Minister Joseph Mucheru. Police took hours to respond to that attack and official information was scarce or conflicting, leading to reforms.
Al-Shabaab, the al-Qaeda-linked extremist group that carried out the 2013 attack that killed 67 people, also claimed responsibility for the hotel assault this week that claimed the lives of 20 civilians, one police officer and five attackers.
The head of the paramilitary wing of the Kenyan police, known as the General Service Unit, said the government did a better job of managing information.
Still, there is the question of how the assailants managed to move their weaponry through the numerous roadblocks.
Yesterday, the Kenya Red Cross said all cases of people who were reported missing had been “closed positively”. Some family members had struggled to locate relatives, some of whom fled the DusitD2 complex without phones and other belongings.
The police tweeted that security teams were still looking for remaining explosives and urged “the public not to panic should they hear a blast since it will be a safe blast”.
With the attack, al-Shabab showed that it could still strike despite heavy pressure from US, Somali and AU forces against its strongholds in neighbouring Somalia.
The incident appeared designed to inflict maximum damage to the country’s image of stability.
The East African operation of LG Electronics mourned the death of an employee in the attack. James Radido, in his last tweets, talked about being “trapped in our buildings” and reported “non-stop explosions”. His last words on Twitter were: “Any news from out there?” AP