Last week’s terrorist attack at the Westgate Mall in Kenya hit me hard. Kenya is my second home. I grew up in that beautiful country. It is a modernized nation where most people attend churches on Sunday and believe strongly in peace. I went to high school there, taught there, married there and two of my children were born there. Some of my children and grandchildren presently live in Nairobi. How can I comprehend the vicious terrorist attack on the Westgate Mall – a place where I dined on roasted chicken last year?
It started at 12:00 noon local time on Saturday, September 21 – a time when the mall was full of shoppers and diners. Gangs of men wearing black turbans stormed three entrances simultaneously. They threw grenades and fired indiscriminately using high-powered assault rifles. There was pandemonium as people hid or tried to flee. Many were taken as hostages. In some cases the terrorists asked people to name their religion. Muslims were released while Christians were executed. The terrorists ensconced themselves in the inner shops of the 6-story mall. The Kenyan police and army arrived and the battle went on for 4 days and nights. In the end over 1,000 traumatized people managed to escape, but the Kenyan Red Cross has confirmed that 67 people have died, over 150 were wounded and 35 are still unaccounted for. The terrorists were estimated to number about 15. Five of them were eventually killed by Kenyan police and the other 10 were supposedly taken into custody. The mall itself was bombed and completely destroyed.
An Indian blogger stated, “The Westgate Mall atrocity defies analysis.” He is right, but let me try. A shadowy organization named el-Shabab has taken credit for the killings. Who is el-Shabab? They are a radical Muslim group based out of Somalia and are known to have links to al-Qaeda. Somalia has been at civil war for the past 20 years. It is a failed state with various clans fighting for control. Somalia is Kenya’s neighbor to the northeast. During the various phases of the civil war many Somali people (primarily women and children) have fled to refugee camps in Kenya. Dabaab is presently the largest refugee camp in the world with over half a million people squatting in the harsh desert. For a short time in 2010 el-Shabab controlled Somalia. At that point they invaded Kenya, attacking various villages and refugee camps. Kenya regarded this as a violation of their sovereign rights so in 2011 the government sent troops into Somalia to punish el-Shabab. Over time Kenya helped free Kismayu and eventually Mogadishu from el-Shabab. El-Shabab vowed revenge. So this attack on the Nairobi mall can be regarded primarily as revenge, but also as a form of publicity – we are still here and we are dangerous.
There have been small attacks by el-Shabab over the past two years with grenades thrown into public places in Nairobi. Kenya has been on alert with double security checks at the airports and metal detectors at store entrances and at sporting events. But the attack on the mall was much bigger. It was well planned. The terrorists chose a mall that was Israeli owned and was frequented by wealthy Kenyans and foreigners. The terrorists even rented a shop in the mall, giving them passes and free access. They were able to bring in large weapons through the back service elevators. During the 4-day siege they were even in Internet connection with people outside the mall.
So where does Kenya go from here? There are hard questions to be asked. To start with, what has happened to the terrorists taken into custody? Are they being questioned? Did they make some kind of deal? There are rumors that the terrorists escaped through an underground sewer system and have returned to Somalia. There are further rumors stating that some of these terrorists came from Somali communities based in Britain and America. And what about security in the future? In addition to the many Somalis living legally in Nairobi as Kenyan citizens, there are also another 30,000 Somali people living there illegally and over 1 million more living in the Kenyan desert. Documenting people is difficult and the country of Kenya is full of soft targets. And yet nobody wants to live in fear and a lock-down mode.
The recent terrorist attack has unified Kenya. The 67 people killed came from many nations and included President Kenyatta’s nephew, two Canadian diplomats, and the renowned poet from Ghana, Kofi Awoonor – aged 78. Even during the siege hundreds of Kenyans showed up to pray, give blood, and donate thousands of shillings to pay for funerals. This past week there was a large inter-faith prayer rally led by religious leaders who were Hindu, Muslim, and Christians. A cleric who spoke confirmed this unity by stating, “We are one people and one nation”.