Kenyan bomb blast kills two

A bomb has gone off in a largely Somali district of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, killing two people and wounding at least eight, the Kenyan Red Cross said.

Friday's bomb blast, the second in three days, went off in the suburb of Eastleigh. Kenyan media outlets are reporting an un-named member of parliament had been wounded in the attack.

It was not immediately clear who carried out the assault in the neighborhood. However, Kenyan authorities have blamed Somali militants for the increase in attacks in Kenya after the government ordered troops to enter neighboring Somalia late last year sent to drive out Islamist militia with ties to al Qaeda.

"There's been another explosion in Eastleigh. This one was near a Mosque," Nairobi's police chief Moses Ombati told the Reuters news agency from the scene of the blast.

He added that it was too early to tell the cause of the blast and that it was possible the casualty figure would rise.

Assailants on Wednesday detonated a makeshift bomb, which wounded at least nine people in an attack local officials say was targeted at Kenyan nationals.

Concern is mounting as the region's biggest economy prepares for a presidential election in March. The poll will be the first since a contested vote in 2007 sparked nationwide ethnic violence.

jlw/rc (dpa, Reuters, AP, AFP)