Police and other security agencies in Kenya have heightened security accross major government and private installations, after several European countries warned of the risk of possible attacks.
They also urged their nationals to stay away from public places.
Heavily armed officers were seen on Friday patrolling the streets of the capital Nairobi, as security was boosted outside key government offices, five-star hotels, private buildings and shopping centres, reported Aljazeera English.
The National Police Service in a statement assured the public that security in the country has been scaled up through different policing operations.
“We urge the public to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activities,” reads the statement.
The French embassy in Kenya on Thursday issued a message to its nationals warning of the danger of an emminent attack in Nairobi on a short notice in the coming days.
It said on its website there was a real risk of places frequently visited by foreigners, such as restaurants, hotels, bars, and shopping centres, being targeted.
“Therefore, people in Kenya are advised to be extremely vigilant and avoid these public places in the coming days, including this weekend,” it said.
The German embassy in Nairobi also issued a similar warning, while the Dutch mission said it had been informed by the French of the possible threat and that it considered the information “credible”.
Kenya has been hit hard severally by different armed groups like the Al-Shabab, in retaliation for sending troops into Somalia in 2011, as part of an African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), to battle the armed group.
In 2019, four Al-Shabab attackers killed 11 people, including an American, in a coordinated attack on the luxury upscale DusitD2 hotel.
In 2015, Al-Shabab militants claimed an attack on Garissa University in eastern Kenya that killed 148 people, almost all of them were students.
It was the second bloodiest attack in Kenya’s history, only superceded by al-Qaeda’s bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi in 1998 that killed 213 people.
At midday on 21 September, 2013, Al-Shabaab militants stormed Nairobi’s premiere shopping centre, The Westgate, throwing grenades and firing indiscriminately at shoppers. The subsequent siege lasted 80 hours and resulted in at least 67 deaths.
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