Security was heightened at various places in Kenya following reports one of the masterminds of the 1998 terrorist attack on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and Osama bin Laden’s successor Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed.
Kenyan security officials said they feared the al-Shabaab militant group might try to retaliate following the killing.
This is because in a joint video released in February 2012, then al-Shabaab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane said he “pledged obedience” to al-Qaeda head Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Al-Shabaab has been attacking several parts of the country in attacks that have led to deaths and property destruction.
Officials aware of the developments said they “changed the gear” after the reports came out on the killing of Zawahiri.
“We know some remnants may try to retaliate and we have changed the gear for now,” said the official.
Security agents manning various locations were instructed to “heighten their vigilance and disrupt any possible threat”.
Zawahiri was linked to the 1998 attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, in which 223 people died.
The attack happened on August 7, 1998, and the killing is seen as a way of getting justice for the victims of the bombing.
Zawahiri was killed in a counter-terrorism operation carried out by the CIA in the Afghan capital of Kabul on Sunday.