Hiiraan Online

The body parts of the suspected male bomber were found scattered at the Garissa Primary School playing ground near the main dais.

Two pistols, one full and a damaged one were found at the scene too.

The bomb was too powerful as it was felt about ten kilometers away from the scene, police and other locals said.

One of the pistols has been found to have been stolen from a CID officer in the area months ago in an attack by suspected terrorists, police said.

Narc Kenya presidential candidate Martha Karua was to hold a rally in the town and was to end up at the damaged scene, one of her aides confirmed.

“We are aware of what happened there and we are trying to see what to do next and if we will go on with our rally there,” said an aide.

Karua has been on a tour of North Eastern and was in Wajir on Saturday.

According to the Garissa County Commissioner Maalim Mohammed, police had initially thought that the explosive material was thrown from a moving vehicle near Locus Hotel.

But on checking on Sunday morning, they established part of the dais has been damaged out of the explosion.

The school is next to the local military barracks and the dais is usually used for political rallies and other public events.

Police who arrived at the scene said the body parts of the deceased man were strewn all over.

“We can see body parts that can make a single human body but the number could be higher because the damage was huge. It must have been a huge bomb,” said a senior security official in the area.

In the past year, there have been over 40 attacks involving grenades or explosive devices in Kenya, leaving at least 100 people dead and around 220 people injured.

At least 15 of these attacks occurred in North Eastern Province, mainly in Dadaab, Wajir, and Garissa and four in Mombasa.

Six grenade and improvised explosive device (IED) attacks have occurred in Nairobi, illustrating an increase in the number of attacks and an advance in the sophistication of attacks.

They came after the Kenyan troops moved into Somalia to hunt down al-Shabaab militants who are blamed for several attacks in the country.

The Saturday attack if it is true it was targeting presidential candidates could have changed the coming elections.

Article 138 (8) of the constitution says the election will be cancelled if a candidate for election as President or Deputy President dies on or before the scheduled election date and if a candidate who would have been entitled to be declared elected as President, dies before being declared elected as President.