By Andrew Ross
NAIROBI
One student died and more than a hundred others were injured on Sunday in a Nairobi University stampede triggered by a terror scare.
"It is unfortunate that one of the students had succumbed to injuries received after jumping out of their hostels," Benson Kibui, Nairobi police boss, told The Anadolu Agency.
A power transformer near the University of Nairobi Kikuyu campus blew up earlier in the morning.
The huge explosion was followed by subsequent mini-explosions, triggering panic among students who mistook it for a militant attack on their hostels.
"We have reports of [students] jumping from as high as the fifth and sixth floors," Peter Mibithi, the vice chancellor of the university, told AA.
He said around 100 students had sustained varies injuries.
"The injured have been rushed to Kenyatta hospital, Kikuyu Hospital and Karen Hospital," Mibithi added.
At least 148 people – mostly students – were recently killed in an attack on northern Kenya's Garissa University College.
Ministers who had strapped themselves with improvised explosive devices stormed the campus in the early hours.
They held hundreds of students hostage for nearly 16 hours, before they were killed by Kenyan troops.
The attack, Kenya's worst since 1998, was swiftly claimed by Al-Shabaab group.
Raila Odinga, the opposition leader, said Kenyans are living in a state of fear.
"A climate of fear and uncertainty is gripping our country, we have to deal with this as matter of urgency," he said in a statement.
"Everything must be done to reassure the public that they have nothing to fear and their security is guaranteed if we are to avoid tragedies like the one witnessed at the University of Nairobi this morning," insisted Odinga, a former prime minister.
