Violence broke out when Kenyans went on the rampage attacking ethnic Somalis near the site of the deadly bus bombing, which some have blamed on sympathisers of Somalia based Al- Shabaab fighters.

One person is known to have been killed during the riots.

An AFP reporter at the scene said police used tear gas and fired into the air to contain the violence, which started when non-Somali Kenyans turned on Somalis and attacked their shops and stalls, accusing them of being responsible for the bus bomb.

“There is chaos. Several people have been injured but we are doing everything possible to contain the riots,” Moses Nyakwama, Nairobi Police chief told AFP by phone.

Eastleigh, the Somali district of Nairobi, has in recent weeks been the scene of several attacks, mostly blamed on sympathisers of Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab fighters.

Most businesses in the area remained closed and roads were blocked for part of the morning as youths from the two communities staged running battles. Several motorists were stoned in their cars.

“Three of my relatives have been taken to hospital after they were beaten up, we are being accused of causing insecurity and bombings, yet we don’t know who is doing it, let the government protect us,” Abdulahi Hassan, a trader, said.

“I closed my shop and stayed in front to guard it after we were attacked by youths throwing stones,” said Ali Sheikh Ahmed, who sells gold and jewellery.

“Around 30 boys with sticks and machetes came to destroy our market, but we fought back,” textile seller Asha Hirsi told AFP.

“We are not Shabaab members and we are not accountable for their actions,” she said.

Kenya has suffered a wave of grenade and gun attacks, often blamed on sympathisers of Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab insurgents, since its army went into Somalia last year to flush out the Shabaab.

On Wednesday, a suspected grenade attack in a supermarket there wounded one person, and two weeks earlier another explosive device went off, wounding two.

Earlier this month, attackers hurled a grenade into a church in the northeastern town of Garissa, close to the Somali border, killing one policeman and wounding 14 people.

Kenyan troops, now integrated into an African Union force, seized the Shabaab bastion of Kismayo in September, a key southern Somali port, prompting warnings of retaliation from both the insurgents and their Kenyan supporters.