Edit 1: 3rd Nov 2006:
Despite it bring Nairobi to a halt I can not find a single article on the bomb scare in Nairobi this week. Not a single one! If any of you have a link please share it with us.
Hash et al. from what I can make out the police received two anonymous calls within minutes of each other claiming that there were bombs in two prominent Nairobi buildings which would go of at any time. One bomb was supposedly located in Times Tower which is the highest building in Kenya and the other was in a building somewhere near GPO, I’m not sure which one. The police responded by clearing the area which including blocking roads and the bomb squad together with their sniffer dogs combed each building. Nothing suspicious was found which lead to the phone calls being declared a hoax. The police are now trying to trace the origins of the phone calls.
I’m blogging using my mobile phone a la JKE in a car park in Nairobi city centre. Traffic is crazy which in itself not news but traffic today is extra crazy. The first indication that something was amiss was when the police started blocking access to certain roads causing long tailbacks. That also in itself is not news as roads are regularly cleared for the presidential motorcade and other VIPs. But this time the policeman one car ahead of me actually carried stone boulders and put them bang in the middle of the road to ensure that no cars went pass. Chaos. A little manoeuvring here and there and I managed to wriggle out of that fix and asked what was going on. Apparently, and this is word on the street unverified, there is a suspicious package somewhere around the GPO building which is pretty much bang in the centre of Nairobi CBD. The craziest thing is that there is no news. The radio stations even the independent FM stations are all silent, the only strange thing is that their usual detailed traffic reports have been reduced to one line. A quick check online shows no information on any of the Kenyan press websites which is remarkable as the place is crawling with journalists (and cops).
Hopefully it all will prove to be a false alarm.
Pamoja Tuangamize Ukimwi
Kaybees - Thanks for voting!
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November 1, 2006 at 8:09 pm
Pingback from Global Voices Online » Blog Archive » Kenya: bomb threat?
November 1, 2006 at 7:09 pm
Guessaurus
Hey there MA.. I think its instinct that told me to stay out of the city today - hope things are well - let me run home and see if there is anything in the news..
Oh and about blogging using mobiles - I will see you kando.
Be well..
November 2, 2006 at 1:49 am
Kenny, The Kenyan spectator
What is this fuss about the bomb scare in Nairobi? I mean everyday there is a BOMB in Nairobi anyway…Policians making statements that shatter, Hawkers engaging in battles that scare, The govt throwing statements that bombs the conscience of the nation, Mega dream of 2030 utopian vision bomb from the Govt…et el!! If there is was a bomb scrare, then it didnt scare us at all!!
November 2, 2006 at 7:13 am
hash
Fill us in on what happened when you can.
November 2, 2006 at 8:42 am
aegeus
My dad has an office on the 20th floor of the same building and they were evacuated at around 3 ish by police. I learnt about it yesterday evening around 6 pm when I went to meet him for coffee at Java Koinange and was stuck in traffic heading across town. I wonder why the radio stations did not mention it.
November 2, 2006 at 11:35 am
itchie geezy
Yesters scare was much like ‘hush of the wind’ possibly we need much more reliable departments to tacle these threats like we have the CSI,CTU do it!
November 2, 2006 at 2:20 pm
Stwap
Hi there!!
This blog seems cool! Those bomb scare’s are afright!! Am hopin it wasn’t just a prank!
P.S
COOL BLOG
November 2, 2006 at 2:24 pm
Klara
I happen to work away from the city centre, so am always behind news, I only learnt this when I arrived home,and to think it was only a scare! makes me sick! Bt I like the police response though!!
November 2, 2006 at 9:03 pm
madame butterfly
hey man, sii u know, i lost my cell phone so best situation is email me with those digits why i declined my pen and paper i dunno anyway. are u safe?hit a sister up
November 3, 2006 at 4:27 pm
que
We also got flushed out of Times Tower at around 4. Something to do with US issuing the warning. Or were they just trying our response to terrorism?
November 3, 2006 at 4:47 pm
Mentalacrobatics
Despite it bring Nairobi to a halt I can not find a single article on the bomb scare in Nairobi this week. Not a single one! If any of you have a link please share it with us.
Hash et al. from what I can make out the police received two anonymous calls within minutes of each other claiming that there were bombs in two prominent Nairobi buildings which would go of at any time. One bomb was supposedly located in Times Tower which is the highest building in Kenya and the other was in a building somewhere near GPO, I’m not sure which one. The police responded by clearing the area which including blocking roads and the bomb squad together with their sniffer dogs combed each building. Nothing suspicious was found which lead to the phone calls being declared a hoax. The police are now trying to trace the origins of the phone calls.
November 3, 2006 at 10:35 pm
JKE
Shall I borrow you my radioscanner (~ tune into 446 Mhz et al)?
November 6, 2006 at 6:04 pm
Digz Guy
My suspicion is there is in fact a secret policy in place by the Disaster Management Agency to communicate to all news services the requirement that no reporting of the circumstances and facts, be done in situations like this to prevent panic, or something along those lines!
But maybe I’m giving them too much latitude and the simple answer is ineptitude on their part
November 9, 2006 at 5:17 am
Ubah
I am Somali living in the US, so I listen sometimes the BBC Somali service.
Anyway, the Somali were pissed off because the “Bomb” scare was meant to say that Somalis were behind it. The US were also saying that there are Terrorist in Kenya that might blow things.
The SOmalis on BBC said “They have no beef with Kenya, and the only people they have beef with is Zenewi of Ethiopia, so they more or less told the American’s to wash their dirty mouths with soap”
that is all we need, bombs being introduce in East African, First it was Kenya, then Ethiopia, than last month the President of SOmali was almost blowing to pieces when a bomb go off, which took out 7 cars, his brother and 3 of his body guard died. No one knowns it is so unlike Somali and so foriegn no one knows who is behind these bombing.
for 15 years of fighting Somalis never seen such a thing.
very bizzare so unlike Afican, we might fight but we never resort to mindless blowing up of things. -
Hey be on the alert, I don’t like when the American talk about bomb.
November 16, 2006 at 2:46 pm
ciru
it was probably just someone who made a crank call to get off work early…