Website Somaliweyn said Sheikh Abuu Yahya told local radio stations al-Shabaab carried out the first attack, which was swiftly followed by another grenade attack on a busy downtown bus station. One person died and dozens were injured in the two blasts.
“If the so-called Kenyan government thinks that we are unable to carry out vengeance for its act of invading our territory, we are telling them that we can carry out attacks right inside its capital city Nairobi," the website quoted the official as saying. "Before anything happened we recommended ... to pull out its troops from Somalia, but they have turned deaf ears to whatever we have told them. This hand grenade at the nightclub bar is the beginning and there will be a series other attacks which we are also planning in some other big cities in Kenya."
The claim for responsibility did not come through the normal channels, and the official who made the statement is unknown. To further cast doubt on the validity of the statement, Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua told CNN that al-Shabaab did not order the grenade attacks. They were, he said, carried out by two young men inspired by al-Shabaab. One is in custody, and the other is being sought, he said.
Police on Tuesday arrested a man, believed to be of Kenyan Muslim origin, and discovered grenades, and AK-47 rifle and hand guns at an apartment in Nairobi's Kayole Estate.
Following Kenya's military operations in Somalia, aimed at suppressing al-Shabaab and stopping further cross-border raids that have seen four foreigners kidnapped in recent months, al-Shabaab threatened suicide attacks in Kenya.