Security agencies in the country said they had raised their alertness as the country marked the sixth anniversary of the Garissa University terror attack.
The move was aimed at defusing any plans by terror groups to attack Kenyans to also mark the day that saw 148 students killed in the dawn attack.
Even though there was no specific threat pointing to a planned attack, the agencies said they were on alert to avert such plans.
“The terrorists like to strike such moments so we are on highest across the country to diffuse any form of plans,” said a well-placed official aware of the plans.
There have been activities to mark the day.
This comes days after police in Garissa intercepted eight AK47 rifles with more than 2,000 bullets in an operation.
Three suspects who were transporting eight AK7 rifles, 2,104 bullets and 20 litres of petrol along Baraki- Maalmin Road in Lagdera area when they were intercepted after a four-hour chase were arrested on Monday.
Police termed the recovery a win in the war on terrorism and argued the weapons were to be used in an undisclosed terror mission.
The weapons are not Kenyan because they have not been registered in the country.
The three were all of Somali origin but had Kenyan identity cards.
They were identified as Nur Ibrahim Alaso Hadadob was the driver, Jimale Abey Mahamad Griftu and Abdirizack Mohamed Ali Elwak.
The mission they had is yet to be known.
On the Garissa University attack, a court in 2019 sitting in Nairobi sentenced one man to life in prison and two others to 41 years for abetting the second deadliest attack in the country's history.
The attack has taught Kenya a lesson, which includes devolving more response teams to various perceived hotspots.
More specialized forces are also deployed at various places to respond to any form of threat.
The 2015 attack at Garissa University left at least 148 dead.
Three men found guilty of being members of the Al-Shabaab terror group and accomplices in the attack were given long prison sentences.
Rashid Charles Mberesero, a Tanzanian who represented himself before the court, was given life in prison, while Mohamed Ali Abdikadir and Hassan Aden Hassan, both Kenyan, were each sentenced to 41 years in prison.
The men were found to have been in constant telephone contact with four attackers before they rounded up students and faculty at the university in the early morning hours of the April 2, 2015, shooting.
Mberesero's longer sentence was attributed to the fact that he was found hiding at the university during the time the attack took place, whereas the others were off-site.
Heavily armed attackers stormed Garissa University College and shot dead two security guards before aiming fire at students in their classrooms while they were preparing for exams.
Witnesses said Christians were singled out by the militants and shot.
More than 500 students managed to escape, some through a fence.
Some locked themselves in rooms and cupboards.
Wearing suicide vests, the four gunmen were eventually surrounded in a dormitory where the vests detonated and they died.
Al-Shabaab has repeatedly attacked Kenya, including a raid on Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi in September 2013, when 67 people died in a four-day siege.
Al-Shabaab says it has been at war with Kenya ever since Kenyan forces entered Somalia in October 2011 in an effort to crush the militants.
Kenya wanted to stop militants from crossing the border between the two countries and kidnapping people, which was affecting tourism.
This provoked Al-Shabaab, which says Kenyan civilians are legitimate targets because they voted for the government that declared war on the group.
Out of the 148 people that were killed in the Garissa massacre, 142 were students.
Officials say three members of the security forces were killed as well as three university guards.
The university was closed for nine months after the attack, but reopened the following year and produced its first new graduates in June.
Garissa is about 200 kilometres from the Somalia border and, in recent years, has been the site of sporadic attacks blamed on Al-Shabaab.
Because of the proximity of the region to the Somalia border, the militants have been crossing and among others setting bombs on the road to target security agents.
They also roam in the area lecturing locals against embracing non-locals.
The militants have been targeting communication masts and government installations in Northern Kenya.
Also on the receiving end are civil servants and non-locals working in the expansive region.
This has crippled the education sector and more so after the Teachers Service Commission recalled most of non-locals teachers working in the troubled region.
Somalia has not had a stable government after the fall of Siad Barre in 1991.
The area is near the Somalia border and the militants usually cross at will and stage attacks before escaping back.
