Kenyan police foil potential bomb attack

The Garden City Mall in Kenya's capital was evacuated on Tuesday after security guards stopped the potential attackers from going into the upscale shopping mall.

"We have detained three men who were found with an improvised explosive device," local police chief Robinson Mboloi told reporters. He said the suspected homemade bomb was detected at the security point by the mall's guards. Two sniffer dogs immediately confirmed that it was a live device and police cordoned off the area.

"Bomb disposal unit officers have detonated it and the area is now safe," he added.

The suspects would now be "investigated to establish their links to terrorism and al-Shabab," the police chief told journalists, referring to the Somali rebel group.

Kenya has been the target of several attacks by the al-Shabab terror organization. The group, which claims allegiance to al Qaeda, laid siege on Nairobi's Westgate Mall two years ago, killing 67 people in four days. The attack was revenge for the Kenyan army's presence in neighboring Somalia.

Last April, the group carried out its most brutal attack to date when its jihadist fighters stormed Garissa University in Kenya's northeast, killing 148 people. Most of the victims were students.

mg/cmk (Reuters, AFP)