Anglican Communion News Service

By Vincent Agoya, The Daily Nation

A boy who had just turned nine was killed on Sunday after an explosive was hurled at a Sunday School class in a Nairobi church.

John Ian Maina suffered fatal injuries in the explosion that rocked the Anglican Church of Kenya St Polycarp Parish on Juja Road in Pangani area.

He was among a group of children waiting for a Sunday School session when attackers struck, throwing an improvised explosive outside their classroom before escaping on foot.

Police had just warned the previous day that Al-Shabaab was planning retaliatory attacks in the country following the capture of Kismayu port by the Kenya Defence Forces in southern Somalia.

Police said the attackers threw the improvised explosive device and escaped through a footpath next to the church compound in the 10.30am incident.

Bloodstained children’s jackets and shoes lay scattered on the floor of the church, surrounded by remnants of iron sheets broken and twisted by the force of the explosion.

Maina’s mother, Jane Siavinya, was overcome with emotion at the Radiant Hospital on Juja Road where her son had been pronounced dead on arrival.

“The government must bring these culprits to book, I cannot fathom why they targeted the little ones,” she said.

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