The motive for the detonation of the device that went off at a crowded place in Nairobi and injured two people is yet to be established, but security agents argue that those behind it could have been “testing waters”.
The team handling the case were sifting through security cameras near the scene to try and trace the movements of the porter who was carrying the luggage.
The porter and a newspaper vendor were injured when the blast went off outside Odeon Cinema at the Latema/Tom Mboya Street junction on Saturday at about 7pm.
The porter told the police he was approached at the Baba Dogo bus stop by a woman in a hijab, who asked him to take the luggage to Kenya Cinema. The woman paid him Sh100.
The money is among evidence now being analysed.
After they had walked for about 200m, the woman told the porter she had forgotten her identification document at a nearby shop and needed to rush and pick it.
“The luggage exploded minutes after she left,” said the porter, Joseph Okinyi, who was treated at Kenyatta National Hospital and discharged.
The police have established that many nails were used to make the IED. They also recovered a switch, which was used in setting it off.
“We suspect there was a mobile phone planted on the explosive to trigger it off,” added another official.
The team also collected a number of materials from the scene. The porter is both a person of interest and witness in the probe.
Detectives have requested owners of structures along the street the porter used to provide them with CCTV footages to aid investigation.
The incident came less than two weeks after five men stormed dusitD2 complex and killed more than 20 people and injured 28 others.
And the US Embassy in Nairobi has issued an alert calling for vigilance.
“The US Embassy reminds the public of the continued need for sustained vigilance in public spaces such as shopping malls, hotels, and places of worship,” read part of an alert re-issued on Saturday.
Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet later said it was critical that all citizens must step up their levels of alertness regarding their surroundings and provide information immediately to the police in case anything out of the ordinary is observed.