The Kenyan National Disaster Operations Centre (NDOC) said two suspects had been detained after the blasts in the capital, Nairobi.
One of the explosions was reported to be on a 14-seat bus. Both explosions were in a market area near Eastleigh in the city.
The NDOC said the injured have been taken to Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) and Guru Nanak Hospital.
The Red Cross was setting up a blood donation centre at KNH.
The blasts - around 1pm UK time - follow terrorist attacks earlier this month in and around the coastal town of Mombasa.
The earlier incidents prompted the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to amend its Kenya travel advice. The new advice warned against all but essential travel to parts of Mombasa.
This, in turn, led to some UK tour operators cancelling Kenyan holidays, with around 500 British tourists being flown home on Thursday and yesterday from Mombasa.
Foreign Secretary William Hague condemned the bombings.
"There can be no place for appalling acts of violence such as this in any society," he said.
"The Kenyan authorities have our full support as they investigate this incident and seek to prevent further attacks."
One explosion struck a minibus taxi, shattering the windows and flattening its tyres.
It was near a market best known for selling second-hand clothes from wooden stalls with corrugated iron roofs. The second blast occurred near the same market.
Outside the blood-spattered minibus, clothes littered a street that had been bustling with shoppers earlier in the day.
"I saw the explosion. People were running in all directions," a woman at the scene told journalists. "I know some of the people who died."
Nairobi County Police Commander Benson Kibui told journalists one suspect was arrested near the market and another was detained elsewhere, without giving details.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
In the past such attacks have been widely blamed on the Somali Islamist militant group al Shabaab, which wants Kenyan troops out of Somalia.
In September, gunmen from the group killed 67 people in an attack on a Nairobi shopping mall.
The US Embassy, which sent out a new travel alert to American citizens warning of a continued terrorist threat, said more than 100 people have been killed in shootings, grenade attacks and bombs in Kenya in the past 18 months.
Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta began a previously planned news conference only minutes after the Nairobi blasts
He offered his condolences over the deaths but he dismissed the US and UK travel warnings, saying that terrorism is a common problem, including in New York and Boston.
The first plane carrying Thomson and First Choice holiday company tourists arrived early yesterday at Gatwick airport.
A second plane was due back from Mombasa last night, with Thomson and First Choice cancelling all flights to Kenya until the end of October.
UK travel organisation Abta said: "We estimated that around 500 British tourists were travelling with tour operators in resorts at the time of the change of FCO advice.
"These customers have been safely repatriated … Anyone still travelling in the affected areas should make contact with their travel provider."
Abta said the Diani beach resort area south of Mombasa remains unaffected by the change to advice, and flights into Nairobi also remain unaffected.
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