Kenya Orders All Refugees into Designated Camps

Kenya on Tuesday restricted all refugees on its soil to two designated camps in the wake of a weekend attack on a church near Mombasa that claimed six lives.

Kenyans were asked to report any refugees or illegal immigrants outside the overcrowded camps -- Dadaab in the east and Kakuma in the northwest -- to the police.

"Any refugee found flouting this directive will be dealt with in accordance with the law," Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku said in a statement.

Sunday's attack, in the Likoni district near Mombasa, came amid heightened warnings of a threat of Islamist violence in Kenya despite boosted security in major cities.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Kenya has been hit by a series of attacks since sending troops into southern Somalia in October 2011 to battle the al-Qaida-linked Shebab insurgents.

The latest attack also came just days after police arrested two men with a vehicle stashed full of large quantities of powerful explosives prepared in pipe bombs, which experts said would have been strong enough to bring down a major building.

Ole Lenku said 500 extra police would be deployed in the capital Nairobi as well as Mombasa, Kenya's second city.

Refugee registration centers in main cities will be closed, the statement said.

Kenya, where Islamist commandos attacked Nairobi's Westgate shopping mall last September leaving 67 dead, stepped up defenses around the capital's airport in February amid "increased threats of radicalization" from homegrown Islamist extremists.