Friday September 24, 2021
Kamkunji Member of Parliament (MP) Yusuf Hassan Abdi (C) gives a press conference in Eastleigh following a bomb scare that led to a building being evacuated.
NAIROBI (HOL) - Business is back to normal at Yare Plaza, which hosts many Somali companies a day after word went around that a bomb could explode in the 10-storey building.
Hiiran Online visited the plaza on Friday morning to find a bee-hive of activities, unlike yesterday when police evacuated the building along First Avenue, Eastleigh- Nairobi County.
On Thursday, detectives drawn from the Anti-terror police unit and bomb experts spent the better part of the day searching the building for explosives after a note that was found that said the shopping complex would explode at midday.
Starehe Sub-County Police boss Julius Kiragu said that the house was safe, and detectives were still pursuing the suspect who had penned the threatening note.
"The building is safe, and people should go on working as normal. I assure them that they are well," said Kiragu.
Business people who work in the building said they suffered financial losses since they missed out on trading.
The building's owner, Ahmed Abdullahi Yare, said that the note resulted from a false alarm, and he did not know who the culprit was.
"We will scale up the building security to appeal shopper's confidence," he said.
However, he maintained that he would not talk more about the issue.
Kamkunji Member of Parliament (MP) Yusuf Hassan Abdi, who represents the Eastleigh ward, said that the person who threw the note inside a lift in the building should be dismissed as 'mentally challenged."
Yusuf Abdi said he visited the complex and assured residents and shoppers back to normal, and he arrived at work on Friday, September 24.
"We were all informed to come back to work yesterday evening, and I arrived here early morning," said Abdi.
Another one Mary Mutuku who is employed in the building said she was happy that calm had returned to her workplace.
"I was worried that something bad could have happened and I lose my job, but luckily everything is back to normal," she said.
The newly opened building is home to dozens of primarily Somali-owned businesses.