Terrorism in Kenya

Kenya has been the scene of various attacks attributed to terrorist elements. In 1980, the Jewish-owned Norfolk hotel was attacked by the PLO. In 1998, the US embassy in Nairobi was bombed, as was the Israeli-owned Paradise hotel in 2002. In 2013, the militant group Al-Shabaab killed 67 people at Nairobi's Westgate Shopping Mall. There have been numerous other lesser attacks.

In July 1976, Kenya's President Jomo Kenyatta allowed an Israel Defense Forces task force to cross Kenyan airspace and refuel at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, on its way to Entebbe International Airport in Uganda. Israel required help from an East African country for the success of its Operation Entebbe raid to extract people from a hostage crisis. Without it Israel lacked the logistical capacity to aerially refuel four to six aircraft so far from Israeli airspace. Perceived as Western interest and Israeli support, this incident led to anger from Islamic extremists.

In early 1975, the first bombs to strike independent Kenya exploded. In February, there were two blasts in central Nairobi, inside the Starlight nightclub and in a travel bureau near the Hilton hotel. The day after the second explosion, JM Kariuki revealed in Parliament that his car had been hit "by what seemed to be bullets".There were rumours of a botched attempt on his life. They were followed by a more serious blast in a Nairobi bus on 1 March, which killed 30 people. Despite a massive public outcry and a police manhunt, no arrests were made. For several days thereafter, the city lived in fear, destabilised by numerous telephone bomb hoaxes.

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