KENYA: BRITISH HIGH COMMISSION OFFICES IN NAIROBI CLOSED BECAUSE OF SECURITY THREAT

Record ID: 230468

  • Title: KENYA: BRITISH HIGH COMMISSION OFFICES IN NAIROBI CLOSED BECAUSE OF SECURITY THREAT
  • Date: 5th December 2002
  • Summary: (U4) NAIROBI, KENYA (DECEMBER 5, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. WIDE OF EXTERIOR BRITISH HIGH COMMISSION OFFICES IN NAIROBI 0.05 2. CLOSE OF SIGN READING BRITISH HIGH COMMISSION 0.10 3. SLV CARS DRIVING PAST EMBASSY OFFICES 0.13 4. SLV KENYAN POLICEMAN WITH BATON OUTSIDE EMBASSY OFFICES 0.22 5. VARIOUS, KENYAN POLICE TELLING CITIZENS THAT THE HIGH COMMISSION OFFICES ARE CLOSED (2 SHOTS) 0.31 6. SMV POLICE BEHIND EMBASSY GATES 0.38 7. WIDE/ PAN OF CARS DRIVING PAST OFFICES 0.56 8. SLV POLICE AND SECURITY VEHICLE OUTSIDE OFFICES 1.04 9. SCU OF SYMBOL OF BRITISH CROWN ON WALL OF HIGH COMMISSION 1.11 10. SLV OF GATES OF HIGH COMMISSION AND SECURITY 1.19 11. SLV GUARD OPENING GATE, GUARD STEPPING OUT 1.27 12. SLV TRAFFIC AND PEOPLE WALKING PAST GATES 1.31 13. GUARDS STANDING NEAR SECURITY BARRIER AND SECURITY VEHICLE 1.37 14. WIDE OF CAR DRIVING OVER SPEED HUMP IN ROAD OUTSIDE EMBASSY COMPOUND 1.46 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 20th December 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NAIROBI, KENYA
  • Country: Kenya
  • Reuters ID: LVA6CU2GPUHZUB7E19U9AXC9X041
  • Story Text: The British high commission office in Kenya has been
    closed until further notice, after the embassy received a
    specific threat. The nature of the threat has not been made
    clear.



    Kenyan authorities sought specific details from Britain
    on Thursday (December 5) about a security threat that forced
    the closure of the British embassy and led to the U.S. mission
    shutting some of its offices.

    Kenya's Foreign Ministry said Britain, whose action on
    Wednesday (December 4) came six days after dual attacks on
    Israeli targets in Kenya, told the Nairobi government only
    that it was closing its embassy and did not explain the
    security threat.

    "They shared the information with us, to the extent that
    they planned to close the embassy," Richard Owade, director
    for political affairs at Kenya's Foreign Ministry, told
    Reuters. "They said they would review the situation on
    Monday."
    On November 28, a suicide bombing at an Israeli-owned
    hotel near Kenya's Indian Ocean port town of Mombasa killed 16
    people. A failed missile attack on an Israeli airliner was
    carried out at about the same time.

    The attacks were a stark reminder of the 1998 bombings of
    the U.S. embassies in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi and the
    Tanzanian capital of Dar es Salaam. The al Qaeda network of
    Saudi-born Islamic militant Osama bin Laden was blamed for
    those bombings, which killed 224 people.

    A Kenyan police spokesman said he could not comment on the
    British embassy closure as the Foreign Ministry dealt with it.

    There were no visible signs of increased security at the
    British mission, called the high commission in the
    commonwealth countries, but Owade said the embassy had
    requested and would receive increased protection from Kenyan
    police.

    The main U.S. embassy, about 10 km (six miles) southeast
    of Nairobi, kept its usual heavy guard. Only some of its
    offices in central Nairobi had been shut and security there
    stepped up.

    On Wednesday, a British embassy spokesman said it had been
    closed "until further notice" after it received a specific
    threat and investigations were under way.

    The United States embassy said it had shut down its
    information and foreign agricultural services offices, but
    declined to say whether it too had received a security threat.

    U.S. President George W. Bush said on Wednesday he thought
    al Qaeda was involved in the Mombasa bombing.

    Bush is due to hold talks on Horn of Africa security with
    outgoing Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi in Washington on
    Thursday. Tensions were already running high in Kenya ahead of
    a December 27 election pitting Moi's chosen successor against
    the leader of an opposition coalition.

    nai/jrc/cr

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