At least one child has been killed and several others injured in a grenade attack at a church in Kenyan capital of Nairobi.

Unknown assailant hurled grenade at the Anglican July Polycarp church lies in the Pangani district on the outskirts of the Kenyan capital, when children gathered for Sunday school service.

“One child has died …. others have been seriously injured…We suspect it was a grenade,” AFP quoted Nairobi Police Chief, July Nyakwama as saying minutes after the incident.

“The children who attend this service are aged between six and 10... We usually divide them according to their ages…They had just started the morning session when the explosion occurred,” said a church official, Livingstone Muiruri.

Those injured were reportedly rushed to nearby hospitals and medical centers for treatment.

According to Red Cross officials, emergency ambulances transferred six children who were in critical conditions from Radian Hospital to Kenyatta National Hospital.

Reports have been linking Sunday’s attack to the Kenyan military intervention in neighboring Somalia.

Earlier on Saturday, the Kenyan army said its troops took control of the southern Somali port city of Kismayo, a major stronghold of al-Shabab fighters.

Kismayo is a strategically important port city on Somalia’s Indian Ocean coast located some 500 kilometers (310 miles) south of capital, Mogadishu.

Kenya dispatched soldiers over its border into the conflict-plagued Somalia last October to pursue al-Shabab militants, which it accuses of being behind the kidnapping of several foreigners on its territory.


Somalia has not had an effective central government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

The weak Western-backed transitional government in Mogadishu has been battling al-Shabab fighters for the past five years, and is propped up by a strong African Union force from Uganda, Burundi, and Djibouti.

Kenyan Defense Forces (KDF) officially joined the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) on July 6 in a bid to secure peace and stability in the neighboring war- ravaged country.

Integrating 4664 Kenyan personnel into AMISOM, the move brought the AMISOM force strength to slightly over 17,000 troops.

Somalia is one of the countries generating the highest number of refugees and internally-displaced people in the world.
20121001
Press TV