NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 14 – Kenya announced Saturday of enhanced security measures, in the wake of the deadly terror attacks in France where more than 150 people were killed, and dozens wounded.
Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet said security forces will work closely with the public in security the country that has fallen victim of similar attacks previously.
“Whilst we in the Police have stepped up vigilance, we call on the public to exercise maximum level of alertness,” he said, “In the wake of the latest Paris attacks and realising that the same terror threat remains real in our country.”
A wave of coordinated attacks left more than 150 dead in scenes of carnage in Paris, including scores massacred by attackers shouting “Allahu Akbar” during a rock concert and others in a suicide bombing near the national stadium.
The attacks reminisce the April killings of 148 people who were executed by Al Shabaab militants in Kenya’s North, at the Garissa University College. Earlier in September 2014, 67 people were killed when the Somali-based militants stormed Westgate Shopping Mall in Westlands in broad daylight.
In France, black-clad gunmen wielding AK-47s stormed into the Bataclan concert hall in eastern Paris and fired calmly and methodically at hundreds of screaming concert-goers.
Witnesses said the attackers shouted “Allahu Akbar” (“God is greatest”) and blamed France’s military intervention in Syria as they sprayed bullets into the crowd watching US rock band Eagles of Death Metal.
World leaders, including US President Barrack Obama and Kenya’s Uhuru Kenyatta have condemned the attack and assured their support to help fight terrorism.
Four attackers were killed when police stormed the Bataclan, which lies just 200 metres (yards) from the former offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine that was targeted in January.
Three of the attackers blew up suicide vests as police launched their attack, several sources said. The fourth was hit by police fire and blew up as he fell.
In the north of the city, at least five people were killed in three explosions near the Stade de France national stadium where France were playing Germany in an international football match, security sources said.
One of the explosions was caused by a suicide bomber, police and witnesses said.
President Francois Hollande was attending the match and had to be hastily evacuated. A Cambodian restaurant near the concert hall was also attacked, with further deaths reported.
Hollande declared a state of emergency across the entire country and cancelled his trip to the G20 summit due to take place this weekend in Turkey.
