2014 Nairobi bus bombings

In October 2011, Kenya deployed soldiers in a coordinated operation with the Somali military against the Al-Shabaab militant group in southern Somalia.[3] Al-Shabaab vowed to launch attacks in Kenya in retaliation.[3] In April 2014, Kenyan authorities announced a security operation, after several terrorist attacks.[3]

On 3 May 2014, three people were killed and fifteen injured[2][1] when a hand grenade was detonated inside a bus in Mombasa, Kenya.[4] In another incident which occurred on the same day, an improvised explosive device was deposited within a bag on a beach.[3] The bag was noticed, and no casualties were reported after "people took cover".[4]

On 4 May 2014, when the 45-seater buses were "packed with commuters",[5][6] two bombs exploded on different buses around 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) apart.[1] The explosions occurred outside a hotel, and in an underpass. According to Kenya's National Disaster Operations Centre, twenty of the injured people were in a critical condition after the blast.[1] Photos showed that one bus had a large hole in the side, and the other had its doors and windows blown off.[1] The majority of casualties were women and children.[7]

Reports differed over the nature of the explosive devices, with some saying the "homemade explosive devices" were grenades.[2] Initial casualty reports were of two dead and twenty-seven wounded,[8][5] but that number increased as time progressed. No group or individual came forward to claim responsibility for the attacks. However, the Kenyan government blamed Al-Shabaab for the incidents.[1]

Kenyan Vice President William Ruto stated that "security agencies are in pursuit of the perpetrators of this heinous and cowardly act",[8] while Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said that "the terrorists will be treated as the vicious criminals they are".[9]