The State Department has updated its travel warning for Kenya due to “heightened threats from terrorism and the high rate of violent crime in some areas.” The update replaces a travel warning from Nov. 4.
On March 10, assailants threw four grenades at a bus station in Nairobi, killing nine and injuring more than 50. Kenya officials blamed Islamic militant group al-Shabab for the attack.
Kenya has been hit with a string of grenade attacks since last October, when Kenya’s military crossed the Somalia-Kenya border to fight rebels from al-Shabab. There have been attacks in or near the coastal city of Mombasa, a tourist destination.
The military invaded southern Somalia after a British couple was kidnapped, and the husband murdered, at a coastal resort near the Kenya-Somali border. “The perpetrators took the hostages into areas of Somalia controlled by al-Shabaab,” said the State Department. The British hostage was released unharmed on March 21.
Also, the State Department said, “The drought affecting the Horn of Africa is causing thousands of people to pour across Kenya's porous borders each week. With Kenya's endemic poverty and the availability of weapons in the area, the result could be an increase in crime, both petty and violent. Kenyan authorities have limited capacity to deter or investigate such acts or prosecute perpetrators.”
Violent crimes can “occur at any time and in any location, most particularly in Nairobi,” said the State Department.