Good People!
Re: Security of the People cannot be compromised
The
concerns of the people are very clear.
This is the moment all Kenyans and the world are united against acts of
terror. No amounts of threats or
fear-factor shall win over democratic space for good governance where people’s
livelihood and survival is threatened.
Reform change under the New Constitution in Kenya, brought about
democratization process which the people want.
The Police Reform for purposes of security to all, is one agenda top on
the list that was underscored. Police
Reform leadership demands that, all must go through a clearance threshold
process, to determine Responsibility with Integrity of a person put in-charge to
discharge and render services in compliance with public mandate requirement;
failure to which people have rights to demand for change. No amount of mini reshufling will save
Uhuru/Ruto government from pressure of the angry people who are faced in the
urgency of now.............the urgency to reform economic security, social
welfare security and political security which sums up peoples safety-net to
secure their progressive development agenda without fear, intimidation or
manipulation..............
It
is troubling that, from the beginning people complained about Kimemias’
appointment. It should not have taken
Uhuru and Ruto this long to cooperate and do what the people want. Consequently, after the terror attack at
Westgate, the pain in the minds of many are evident. No serious leader would want to do something
that would compromise their trust for the people. The manner at which the appointment is
hurriedly made to replace Kimemia is suspicious and is not right which is about
to cause ripples of serious conflicts endangering peace amongst the people of
Kenya.
Uhuru
and Ruto governance is very much on a shaky ground and this is not the time
Uhuru and Ruto want any kind of pressure from the public who now feel cheated
after the Westgate terror attack where too many questions still linger that
require to be addressed urgently before people unite to hit the streets all over
the world with songs to demand Uhuru/Ruto leadership is threatening human
rights, livelihood and survival…….that, ”Uhuru/Ruto must go”……….When fire begin
to burn, it is just right to do what is right, to put out the fire from burning
and save a situation instead of letting fire to go up in flames and burn
everything into ashes………..
Judy Miriga
Diaspora
Spokesperson Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com/
1) ----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Fred Osewe
To: "progressive-kenyans@googlegroups.com"; "wanakenya@googlegroups.com"
Cc: KOL; "uchunguzionline@yahoogroups.com"
; NVK-MAGEUZI
; the last word to kenya
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2013 11:15 AM
Subject: Re: [PK] Re: [KOL] BREAKING....JOSEPH KINUA APPOINTMENT
To: "progressive-kenyans@googlegroups.com"
Cc: KOL
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2013 11:15 AM
Subject: Re: [PK] Re: [KOL] BREAKING....JOSEPH KINUA APPOINTMENT
They colluded and betrayed Kenyans
on this appointment just the same way they "consulted" to stage manage the West
Gate scandal! Talk of digital but empty shell leaders!
In politics, if you want
anything said, ask a man- if you want anything done ask a woman.
From: Maurice Oduor
To: "wanakenya@googlegroups.com"
Cc: KOL; "uchunguzionline@yahoogroups.com"
; NVK-MAGEUZI
; the last word to kenya
;
"progressive-kenyans@googlegroups.com"
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2013 10:38 AM
Subject: [PK] Re: [KOL] BREAKING....JOSEPH KINUA APPOINTMENT
To: "wanakenya@googlegroups.com"
Cc: KOL
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2013 10:38 AM
Subject: [PK] Re: [KOL] BREAKING....JOSEPH KINUA APPOINTMENT
Roz,
They consulted to make a tribal
appointment. What else is new. As long as those 2 are concerned, Kenya is made
up of Kikuyus and Kalenjins only. What a way to run a country of 42 tribes
!!!!!!
On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 10:25 AM, roz kahumbu
<rozkah2005@yahoo.com>
wrote:
Karario. I guess The President and
the Vice President consulted.
Next?
roz
From: mark kirario
<mkirario.088@gmail.com>
To: KOL <kenyaonline@yahoogroups.com>
Cc: uchunguzionline@yahoogroups.com; NVK-MAGEUZI <nvk-mageuzi@yahoogroups.com>; "wanakenya@googlegroups com" <wanakenya@googlegroups.com>; the last word to kenya <thelastwordtokenya@yahoogroups.com>; progressive-kenyans@googlegroups.com
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2013 5:18 PM
Subject: Re: [KOL] BREAKING....JOSEPH KINUA APPOINTMENT
To: KOL <kenyaonline@yahoogroups.com>
Cc: uchunguzionline@yahoogroups.com; NVK-MAGEUZI <nvk-mageuzi@yahoogroups.com>; "wanakenya@googlegroups com" <wanakenya@googlegroups.com>; the last word to kenya <thelastwordtokenya@yahoogroups.com>; progressive-kenyans@googlegroups.com
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2013 5:18 PM
Subject: Re: [KOL] BREAKING....JOSEPH KINUA APPOINTMENT
What the hell is this, just
coming hot on hills of the WESTGATE sober appeal slogan "we are one" country,
one population?
Uhuru could have used this
chance to heal and reconcile 'our' country by making a bypartisan choice, not
necessarily from his own and Rutos tribe.
Any among the remaining 40+
strong tribes who can perform better adminstrative functions than that financial
guru, could have done the trick.
If we speak the truth, we
are branded tribalist, selfish and egocentric minds.But I remind them this, that
the significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking
we were at when we created them.
When it comes to government
appointment (s) the ruling elites just knows only one or two tribes, but cry
wolf and crocodile tears at the time of national calamities, foreign barbaric
intrusion like the Westgate siege, and any other terrorist attack.
Rewind back your memory and
reflect how Kenyans wholeheartedly contributed via m-pesa, how they lined up to
offer blood donations, how the military and uniformed armed policemen picked
randomly accross the republic, put their lives on the line to save other
Kenyans.
Then bang, back to old usual
ways.....SHAME....
Kirario
------------------------------------------
2) ----- Forwarded Message ----- From: Jack Ndunya
To: "uchunguzionline@yahoogroups.com"
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2013 9:36 AM
Subject: Re: [uchunguzionline] Re: ??? Hard questions Kenyans want answered after Westgate terror attack
To: "uchunguzionline@yahoogroups.com"
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2013 9:36 AM
Subject: Re: [uchunguzionline] Re: ??? Hard questions Kenyans want answered after Westgate terror attack
I here you all Brethren, Indeed
lots of questions arise as a result of mishandled flow of information by the
people concerned which if combed to the teeth, will put all to questio. 1. We
were told the KDF had "neutralized" the
terrorists! were also informed that the terrorists were "cornered", the meaning of both words are,
Neutralize means to render ineffective, meaning they were
dis-powered.
cornered means The area
enclosed or bounded.
Now,, all these words were spoken by the Cabinet Secretary
for Interior and the Chief of staff before the building caved inn, so the Big Q
is WHO brought the three floors of the West gate down if the terrorists had been
immobilized?
Where are the deadly weapons which were used by the
terrorists?
The eleven who were arrested, where were they
captured?
Jexx in the
hood
From: Evans MACHERA
To: "wanakenya@googlegroups.com"; AFRICA OPED
; WANAKENYA KENYA
; "wanabidii@googlegroups.com"
; "wananchi@googlegroups.com"
; "Kiswahili@yahoogroups.com"
; uchunguzi online
; YOUNG PROFESSIONALS
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2013 6:52 AM
Subject: [uchunguzionline] Re: ??? Hard questions Kenyans want answered after Westgate terror attack
To: "wanakenya@googlegroups.com"
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2013 6:52 AM
Subject: [uchunguzionline] Re: ??? Hard questions Kenyans want answered after Westgate terror attack
Judy,
China have their interests
and style of approach to international issues guided by their foreign policy ;-
be friendly and make economic gains. Anything else,ikae.
So get valuers to count the
losses, and tender for the mall re-building and re-construction and you will see
China in true colours.
Peace be still.
Evans MACHERA
From: Judy Miriga
To: Change Mombasa; Mabadiliko
; "jaluo@jaluo.com"
; "wanabidii@googlegroups.com"
; "wanakenya@googlegroups.com"
; Uchunguzionline
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2013 3:01 AM
Subject: ??? Hard questions Kenyans want answered after Westgate terror attack
To: Change Mombasa
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2013 3:01 AM
Subject: ??? Hard questions Kenyans want answered after Westgate terror attack
Good People!
Hard questions indeed with so many questions that continue to
remain unanswered.........Where are the arrested terrorists ???
AND why
does it take China so long to send their rambi rambi?
Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
Kimaiyo announces mini-reshuffle in police force to boost
security
Updated
Thursday, September 26th 2013 at 11:00 GMT +3
By Cyrus Ombati
NAIROBI, KENYA: Four senior police officers including North Eastern
Regional Coordinator (RC) Mr Charlton Mureithi have been moved in a mini
reshuffle.
Mureithi has been moved to City Hall in Nairobi to be in charge of the
newly created Security and Compliance section. He will be replaced by Mr Henry
Barmao from police headquarters.
The new Eastern RC is Mr Yaa Baya, formerly the chief licencing officer.
Baya will replace Mr Mercus Ochola who has been moved to Kiganjo police college
and named the deputy commandant.
The changes were announced by Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo as
part of efforts to bolster security in the affected areas.
Most parts of North Eastern had been experiencing insecurity and terror
related incidents in the past months which claimed more than 100 lives and
injured tens others.
But since April, there has
been improved security in the area until Wednesday night when gunmen killed a
man in a grenade attack in Wajir Town.
A member of the gang
identified as Ayub Omar Gullet, was arrested by police after he was shot on the
stomach by his colleagues.
He is being interrogated.
Another gang raided a police post in Mandera on Thursday and killed two officers
before torching 11 vehicles in rage.
They also
bombed the local DO's office before
they escaped with the officers’ guns.
Kenya Works With Interpol to Track Down Mall Attackers
By
David Malingha Doya & Sarah
McGregor - Sep
26, 2013 6:35 AM CT
Kenyan authorities are sharing a list of suspects with the international
police agency, Interpol, to help track down those involved in the attack on a
Nairobi shopping mall in which at least 72 people died.
“Details of arrested individuals and any other suspects linked to the
attack are running through Interpol’s database for potential leads,” the Kenya National Disaster Operation Centre said today on
its Twitter account.
Kenyan forensic investigators at the scene of the raid are being assisted
by experts from Israel, the U.S., Germany, Canadaand Britain in a probe that’s expected to last at
least a week, according to Interior Secretary Joseph Ole Lenku.
The government has said it doesn’t expect the death toll to rise
significantly. Authorities are sifting through the rubble after three floors in
the Westgate Mall collapsed following blasts and a fire that broke out during
the four-day standoff. An unknown number of people were held captive or in
hiding during the assault.
The attack was the deadliest since al-Qaeda bombed the U.S. Embassy in
downtown Nairobi in August 1998, killing 213 people. Al-Shabaab, the
Somali-based Islamist militia that claimed responsibility for the Sept. 21 raid,
had threatened to strike after Kenya deployed troops in Somalia in October 2011
to fight the militants, blaming them for a series of kidnappings and the murder
of a British tourist in Kenya. The al-Qaeda-affiliated group denied the
accusations. The dead include 61 civilians, six security officers and five
assailants.
More Bloodshed
Al-Shabaab leader Ahmed Godane, in a message posted online, said his fighters carried out
the mall attack, and warned of“more bloodshed” unless Kenya withdraws its forces
from Somalia.
Kenyan security forces used armored vehicles and weapons including heavy
machine guns to end the assault. The Kenya Red Cross said that 71 people were missing as of Sept.
24.
There is “increased public anxiety on account of missing persons, the
disruption caused by the continued crisis and inadequate information flow,” the
Red Cross said today. Ole Lenku said in an interview today that the government’s
estimate of the death toll “has not changed” since Sept. 24.
Two Kenyan police officers were killed and one was wounded in an attack
today on a county-government office in northeastern Mandera, near the Somali
border, the Interior Ministry said
on its Twitter account. In Wajir, also in the northeast, one person died and
four were injured from a grenade blast in a market yesterday, it said.
Kenyan Stability
Kenya’s relative stability in a troubled region has attracted companies
including Toyota Motor Corp. (7203), International Business
Machines Corp., General Electric Corp. and Google Inc. (GOOG)to set up bases
in the East African nation. The United Nations’African headquarters
are also in Nairobi.
The attack may curb government revenue and is “credit negative,” Moody’s
Investors Service said in a Credit Outlook report today. The biggest impact on
the country’s economic growth will be on its tourism industry, which accounts
for 12.5 percent of gross domestic product, it said.
The shilling advanced for a third day,
strengthening 0.2 percent to 87 per dollar by 2:27 p.m. and heading for its
strongest close since July 19. The Nairobi Securities Exchange’s FTSE NSE 25
Index gained 0.8 percent to 166.53.
Lunchtime Attack
The attack began around lunchtime when as many as 15 gunmen stormed the
upscale mall, throwing hand grenades, firing automatic weapons and forcing
panicked patrons to flee the building or hide inside the more than 80 shops in
the complex. The government said more than 1,000 people were rescued.
Investigators are trying to confirm the nationalities of the attackers, Ole
Lenku said. Kenyan Foreign Secretary Amina Mohamed said on Sept. 23 that two or
three Americans and a female British citizen participated in the attack. A
British national has been arrested in Kenya, according to a statement e-mailed
yesterday by the U.K. Foreign Office.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said yesterday that investigators haven’t
confirmed claims that Americans participated in the attack. “At this point, we
don’t have any verification that any Americans have been involved in the attack
as attackers,” he told reporters in Washington.
Troop Commitment
African leaders remain committed to continue battling al-Shabaab’s forces
in Somalia, the African Union’s Peace
andSecurity Council said in a
statement on its website.
The continental body will “continue its efforts in Somalia, in order to rid
the country and the region of terrorist and criminal groups, and bring about
lasting peace, security and stability in Somalia,” it said.
Al-Shabaab has been fighting Somalia’s government since at least 2006. The
militant group claimed responsibility in July 2010 for coordinated bomb attacks
in neighboring Uganda that killed 76 people
watching the soccer World Cup final at two
venues. Al-Shabaab said it targeted Uganda because the country had troops
serving in the African Union Mission in Somalia.
The African Union has a more than 17,000-member peacekeeping force in
Somalia that includes the Kenyan troops.
To contact the reporters on this story: David Malingha
Doya in Nairobi at dmalingha@bloomberg.net; Sarah McGregor in Nairobi at
smcgregor5@bloomberg.net
To
contact the editor responsible for this story: Nasreen Seria at nseria@bloomberg.net
-----------------------------------
-----
Forwarded Message -----
From: Oduya - Magunga
To: "progressive-kenyans@googlegroups.com"
Cc: WanaKenya; uchunguzi online
; KENYA ONLINE
; "thelastwordtokenya@yahoogroups.com"
; NVK-MAGEUZI
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2013 8:22 AM
Subject: BREAKING....JOSEPH KINUA APPOINTMENT
From: Oduya - Magunga
To: "progressive-kenyans@googlegroups.com"
Cc: WanaKenya
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2013 8:22 AM
Subject: BREAKING....JOSEPH KINUA APPOINTMENT
Lee,
Civil vs Public Service!
Regards,
Civil vs Public Service!
Regards,
-----------------------------
From: Lee Makwiny
To: progressive-kenyans
Cc: WanaKenya; uchunguzi online
; KENYA ONLINE
; "thelastwordtokenya@yahoogroups.com"
; NVK-MAGEUZI
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2013 4:13 PM
Subject: Re: [PK] Re: BREAKING....JOSEPH KINUA APPOINTMENT
To: progressive-kenyans
Cc: WanaKenya
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2013 4:13 PM
Subject: Re: [PK] Re: BREAKING....JOSEPH KINUA APPOINTMENT
Although he had to be
a Kikuyu, but he is better than Kimemia
----- Forwarded
Message -----
From: Clement Oginga
To: WanaKenya
Cc: uchunguzi online; KENYA ONLINE
; "thelastwordtokenya@yahoogroups.com"
; NVK-MAGEUZI
; progressive-kenyans
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2013 7:54 AM
Subject: Re: BREAKING....JOSEPH KINUA APPOINTMENT
From: Clement Oginga
To: WanaKenya
Cc: uchunguzi online
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2013 7:54 AM
Subject: Re: BREAKING....JOSEPH KINUA APPOINTMENT
Roz,
Was Kinyua the most qualified Kikuyu he could find? I thought Kimemia was the Head of Civil Service !!!!! Are we now duplicating jobs?
Was Kinyua the most qualified Kikuyu he could find? I thought Kimemia was the Head of Civil Service !!!!! Are we now duplicating jobs?
On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 8:52
AM, roz kahumbu <rozkah2005@yahoo.com>
wrote:
Dennis Itumbi
Breaking News: President
@UKenyatta appoints Former Treasury PS, Joseph Kinyua, as the Chief Of Staff and
Head of Civil Service and will coordinate Cabinet
affairs and Cabinet
programmes.
affairs and Cabinet programmes.
UN court jails Liberia’s Taylor for 50 years on appeal
LEIDSCHENDAM, Sept 26 – A
UN-backed appeals court on Thursday confirmed Liberian ex-president Charles
Taylor’s 50-year sentence for arming rebels during Sierra Leone’s brutal 1990s
civil war.
“The appeals chamber…
affirms the sentence of 50 years in prison and orders that the sentence be
imposed immediately,” judge George King told the Special Court for Sierra Leone
(SCSL).
Sent: Thursday, 26
September 2013, 11:59
Subject: Africa: INTERPOL team deployed to assist Kenyan investigation into Westgate shopping centre terror attack
Subject: Africa: INTERPOL team deployed to assist Kenyan investigation into Westgate shopping centre terror attack
If you cannot read that
message, click
here.
PRESS RELEASE
INTERPOL team deployed to
assist Kenyan investigation into Westgate shopping centre terror
attack
INTERPOL’s role is to
help coordinate the international response in support of the Kenyan
authorities
NAIROBI,
Kenya, September
26, 2013/ -- An INTERPOL Incident Response Team (IRT) (http://www.interpol.int/) has been deployed at the
request of Kenyan authorities to provide on-site assistance to the Westgate
shopping centre terror attack investigation.
Headed by INTERPOL’s Executive Director of Police Services
Jean-Michel Louboutin the team includes Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) and
data specialists who will carry out real-time comparisons against INTERPOL’s
global databases on DNA and fingerprints and other evidence gathered from the
crime scene.
The IRT, which arrived in Nairobi
on Wednesday, will also ensure the swift dissemination of all forensic
information, photographs of the suspected terrorists, details of arrested
individuals and any other suspects linked to the deadly assault, to INTERPOL’s
190 member country network for comparison against national databases to identify
any potential leads.
“INTERPOL’s role is to help coordinate the international response in
support of the Kenyan authorities as they investigate this horrific incident,
and to assist their actions at the regional and international levels,” said Mr
Louboutin.
“Whether it be through comparison of information against INTERPOL’s
global databases, or the issuance of a notice to identify a victim, locate a
wanted person, or seek additional information about suspects, we will offer all
necessary assistance to help bring those responsible to justice,” added Mr
Louboutin.
In addition to the IRT deployment, support is also being provided to
Kenya’s national authorities via INTERPOL’s Regional Bureau in Nairobi and the
24-hour Command and Coordination Centre (CCC) at its General Secretariat
headquarters in Lyon, France.
The CCC will also act as a central liaison to the INTERPOL National
Central Bureaus of all the involved countries to ensure any ante mortem data on
those killed during the attack, both victims and suspected perpetrators, is
received as quickly as possible by Kenyan authorities.
INTERPOL also stands ready to mobilize additional support from its
global network of DVI and other experts, with officers from its
Counter-terrorism and Criminal Analysis Units examining all INTERPOL databases
to determine whether any links can be drawn between this terrorist act and other
incidents around the world.
Distributed by the
African Press Organization.
SOURCE
INTERPOL
Suspected terrorists kill two police officers in Mandera
town
Updated Thursday, September 26th 2013 at
10:06 GMT +3
|
Suspected terrorist on Thursday morning killed two policemen and wounding
some in Mandera (Photo: Courtesy)
|
By Cyrus Ombati
MANDERA, KENYA: Men believed to be terrorists attacked a police
station in Mandera Town near the Somalia border and killed two police officers,
injure three others before burning at least 11 vehicles on Thursday
morning.
Seven of the vehicles were extensively damaged in the attack, police
said.
They also threw a Rocket Propelled Grenade ( RPG) on the local DO’s office burning it
down before escaping in the 3 am incident.
Outgoing North Eastern police boss Charlton Mureithi said the gunmen struck
as most of the officers at the Administration Police post were a sleep.
"They have caused much destruction and deaths before escaping but we hope
they will be caught," he said.
The attackers are said to have taken their time at the station after
ambushing and shooting the officers at close range.
They doused the vehicles parked at the station with petrol before setting
them on fire. According to Mureithi, they later threw an RPG on a house at the
station before escaping.
The injured officers were expected to be flown to Nairobi later on Thursday
for further treatment.
The attack was the second one in a day following another one that occurred
earlier on Wednesday night in Wajir Town.
One man was killed and four others wounded following an explosion and
shooting.
Police said gunmen hurled two grenades at a crowd but one exploded in the 7
pm incident. And as they were escaping they opened fire killing one man and
injured three others.
One of the attackers was injured by the grenade that exploded and was later
arrested, police said. He is in custody helping police with investigations.
Wajir police boss Isaiah Odhiambo said they have tightened security in the
town.
"We managed to arrive at the scene in time and arrested one suspect in the
attack," he said.
The attacks came in the wake of frequent terror related attacks in the
country, the latest being Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi, most of which have
been claimed by the Al-Shabaab militants who said they are part of retaliation
to Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) involvement in the security matters within
Somalia.
Hard
questions Kenyans want answered after Westgate terror attack
Updated Wednesday, September 25th 2013 at
17:15 GMT +3
By Digital Reporter
Nairobi, Kenya: Kenyans have asked prodding questions directed at
government authorities and demanded for answers which the State has avoided
answering since the Saturday massacre.
Without a detailed blow by blow account of what transpired at the upscale
shopping mall, questions were fired from the citizens as well as a section of
members of the National Assembly even as State House Spokesman Manoah Esipisu
ducked some questions from the media.
From questions about the effectiveness of the National Intelligence
Service, to how the sophisticated, well planned and executed massacre happened
and why it was not prevented dominated discussions online and on FM radio
stations.
Members of the public spoke as the media awaited government briefing on the
progress of investigations from the Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Ole Lenku
later Wednesday afternoon.
Their questions exposed how the Jubilee Government communicated
incoherently at times contradicting each other.
Kenyans are also demanding to be furnished with the official death toll of
the massacre especially the number of people buried in the mall after it was
taken over by security forces. Some are demanding to be shown bodies and
pictures of the terrorists arrested and those killed.
Below are some of the Tough questions:
1. How many people are still unaccounted for?
2. How many terrorists were involved in the attack? Are they all accounted
for?
3. Amb Amina Mohammed said there was at least one female terrorist whom she
identified as a Briton. Interior Cabinet Secretary Ole Lenku in a press briefing
said they were all men. Could you clarify? Was Samantha Lewthwaite one of the
attackers?
4. What of the reports the at least one terrorist escaped from Westgate?
Again, Amb Amina Mohammed in her Al Jazeera English interview suggested some
might have hidden among hostages and escaped. Who were the people arrested in
JKIA? Were any of them in Westgate? Will any arrested terrorists be put on trial
here or handed over to other states?
5. Are there any terrorists on the loose in the city who are yet to be
captured?
6. Will there be an inquiry into the attack to identify potential
improvements to intelligence and security? What powers of investigative
authority will the group tasked with the inquiry be given?
7. Was fire on terrace started by terrorists to burn hostages and swap
identities? How many escaped?
8. Will the findings be made public after the investigations?
9. What of the cars that dropped the attackers at Westgate? Are the cars
still there? If not, are they being pursued? (I don’t want to delete someone
elses question, I simply ask that you kindly consider this ->
https://twitter.com/PoliceKE/status/382505737421070337 ) - @mwirigi
10. Who owns the Westgate Mall building? Have they been taken in for
questioning?
11. There are reports of the attackers renting a store at the mall. Are
these reports true and is the landlord being pursued for information on the
same? Have they arrested the staff for questioning?
12.Ten suspects have been arrested for questioning. Are they part of the
attackers? Are we still safe?
13. What is the security forces’ explanation to the story of the escaped
hostage who says one of the gunmen blended with them and walked out as a
hostage?
14. When did the terrorists get into the country? How? Where? How soon will
you be able to determine this?
15. If the delay in using brute force to overcome the gunmen by Sunday
morning was because there were hostages whose lives the authorities wanted to
save, how many hostages were saved since Sunday Morning?
16. If it really was just about the attack, why keep hostages alive for
three days...why not just kill everyone and blow the building up?
17. Do the police have access to
architectural plans of Westgate and the air vents checked to ensure no terrorist
is hiding?
18. Was there anyway to assess those rescued like a debrief room where
details were recorded ( i.e. biographical data, contacts etc)?. How do we know
who was there?
19. In the last government, there were many rumours that Kenyan Passports
and Id’s were being sold for Sh300,000 . Is it possible to inspect and record
how many of them were undeserving and recall them and/or deport or arrest those
who own them? Also, Is it possible to use this evidence to jail those
responsible for selling our country?
20. Was the CCTV footage made available to the police?
21. Why was the IG Kimaiyo asking for pictures to be sent to him on
Twitter?
22. How many hostage takers have been killed?
23. When will a report by NSIS be made public with an analysis of the
security situation prior and after the attack? Were we caught by surprise? If
so,why? Did we know or at least suspect something like this? If so, what did we
do to try averting the same? And most important, what’s the security position
now?
25. In times of disasters and any such tragedies, why can't we have a clear
command structure to ensure that orders and coordination comes from one person
and thereby eliminate the possibility of terrorist gelling with victims and
escaping so easily?
26. Why was there conflicting information from different government
sources?
28. What is the role of Rachel Omamo in the security military
operation?
29.Were Kenyan Forces in control
of CCTV control room by 11am Tuesday morning?
30. Can we see the bodies of the “neutralized” terrorists?
31. What do we stand to gain by KDF being in Somalia?
33. Is it true that Samantha
Lewthwaite aka White Widow bribed to avoid a jail term ? Who did she bribe?
Where is she? What does she know?
34. Samantha Lewthwaite has
been to Kenya twice (In 2011 and 2012). How did she stroll through our airports
undetected? She’s been on FBI’s and Interpol’s watch list since 20.
35. Why won't they tell us
how many hostages were rescued or where they were taken to? Why is there so much
secrecy?
36. Did the Kenyan military have access to the basement parking by Tuesday
11am?
38. Every crime has a fixer.
How is it possible that someone can procure such a huge cache of arms and ship
it without our NSIS knowing? If the arms were imported, what are we doing to
secure our borders?
39. Somalia. Let’s talk
about Kenya’s invasion of Somalia. Are we finally paying for this? And if so,
how can we be sure that victory is ours when victory for now just means
reclaiming Westgate? What about the future?
40. Why is Kenya a terrorist
target for the ninth time? What have we done? More importantly, why is the
Government not able to protect its citizens? For how long will we react instead
of preventing?
41. Ole Lenku said fire that
started on Monday was caused by mattresses being torched by terrorists. Some
time before, he had claimed that the terrorists had been “contained” in a
section in one of the “upper floors”. If this is true, how did the terrorists
gain entry into Nakumatt on the second floor? Better yet, isn’t Nakumatt on the
ground floor in Westgate mall?
44. Why didn’t the government jam telephone network and ask service
providers to block signals to Nairobi area once the magnitude was clear on day
2?
45. The public have a right
to know how many citizens were killed. Fudging information won’t help. Also,
information on terrorists caught, killed, and those who escaped. Will we be told
the truth?
51. Are there underground
tunnels eg sewage ducts at the mall that could act as passageways?
52. What do MPs and
“national politicians” gain by insisting that the terrorists did not have a
religious angle to their approach (even if misconceived)? Are politicians being
genuine, naive or simply avoiding to explore the root cause?
53. Why would a 27-year-old
soldier who has served for only 4 years be detailed to undertake an operation of
that magnitude?
55. How safe are our borders?
56. What caused the floors to collapse?
62. How many children died?
65. Why did it take more
than 30 minutes for the security system to get activated and act from the time
the first distress signal was sent?
TODAY | September 25,
2013
Mall survivor: I was rescued by American security forces
TODAY
TODAY | September 25,
2013
TODAY | September 25,
2013
Mall survivor: I was rescued by American security forces
Bendita Malakia, a 30-year old World Bank employee, said she was certain she was rescued from Kenya’s Westgate mall siege -- where there was gunfire and even grenades -- by American security forces who led her out to safety. NBC’s Tom Costello reports.
Exclusive video shows chaos of Kenya mall
attack
The new
images from the inside the Westgate Mall in Kenya are sobering: a family playing
dead to avoid harm, shoppers escaping, and a child being carried to safety. More
than 60 people died in the terrorist attack, most of them civilians. NBC’s Ron
Allen reports.
From:Jagem
K'Onyiego
To: progressive-kenyans@googlegroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2013 4:36 PM
Subject: Re: [PK] Re: THIS what is called a banana republic/ deny it and pay with your life.
To: progressive-kenyans@googlegroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2013 4:36 PM
Subject: Re: [PK] Re: THIS what is called a banana republic/ deny it and pay with your life.
I hope Sonko is not making
it an official alibi for a cover up. Where are those Terrorists who were killed?
Anybody with their pictures?
Jagem
On Wed, Sep 25, 2013 at 1:25
AM, Clement Oginga <cloginga@gmail.com>
wrote:
If what Sonko is saying here
is true then I think the Police have a big question to answer. If they received
reports about these thugs and they did nothing, I say the officers who received
that report should be identified and relieved of their duties immediately. This
is not a laughing matter.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Kenya info blackout? Extraordinary lack of detail about Westgate seige
How many really died? Why no mugshots of militants? Where are the hostages? Why no blow-by-blow? Why no clear information from Kenyatta?
Even as President Uhuru Kenyatta was giving
his televised address on Tuesday, telling the world that the siege of Nairobi’s Westgate mall was over,
Kenya’s "netizens" were
celebrating.
With the hashtag #WeAreOne,
praise for President Kenyatta, the Kenya Defense Forces, the police and the Red Cross swamped
Twitter and other social media, as did elegies for the 61 civilians and six
security officers the president said died during the assault.
Soon, however, the tone had
noticeably hardened: “SO. MANY. QUESTIONS” tweeted @kenyanpundit. Others pointed
out that Kenya's authorities had “not provided a single mugshot of the
attackers,” as did @bonifacemwangi.
By Wednesday, a list of 85
questions drawn up by Kenyan citizens was doing the rounds online, demanding
answers from their government that was either unable nor unwilling to clarify
fundamental aspects of the 80-hour ordeal.
RECOMMENDED: Think you know Africa? Take our
geography quiz.
During the Tuesday speech,
Kenyatta did not clarify the final number of people who died. He said 61
civilians, six troops and five attackers were dead but did not spell out if that
was in addition to a Kenya Red Cross toll of 62 already counted
fatalities.
A further 71 people are registered missing, the charity said
Wednesday.
More bodies, including those
of the militants, were buried in rubble where a portion of the Westgate Shopping
Mall collapsed in the last hours of the siege, Kenyatta said. But he was unable
to say how many attackers there were, or how they ferried apparently large
amounts of ammunition or conspicuously heavy weapons into the four-story
mall.
Perhaps most disturbingly
for those still waiting for news of missing loved ones, he did not mention the
word “hostage” once in his 15-minute address.
Early reports from the mall
siege gave the impression that there were perhaps dozens of people being held
after the first waves of hundreds who managed to escape as the attackers took
over the complex.
The Kenya Red Cross
established an emergency field hospital in the basement car park of a Hindu
community hall, to “be prepared for many injured”, according to Rashmi Shah, one
of the center's managers.
In the event, fewer than 10
people were treated there, and most of those were soldiers. By Tuesday, the
triage hospital unit was shut.
Now among the most urgent questions that has been raised: “Where are the
hostages?”
Critics are raising
allegations against national intelligence and security forces of how such a
heavily armed band of foreigners was allowed to enter Kenya, and then to
transfer their arsenal into the guarded mall.
"My position, and the police
will investigate this, is that there was a very serious lapse in security, which
may have gone on for six months,” said Laban Onditi Rao, vice-chairman of the
Kenyan National Chamber of Commerce, who was communicating with the mall's
owners and security staff during the siege.
"There is the idea that they
hired a shop there, and that would give them accessibility all over the mall,
and would allow some of them to pass security easily because they would be
known," he said.
Responding to this, Manoah
Esipisu, Kenya’s presidential spokesman, said late Tuesday that, “we’re leaving
nothing to chance" in the investigation, including whether the militant gang had
rented a shop at Westgate, or that they had an insider helping them.
As demands for answers to
still unexplained aspects of the assault grew on Wednesday, Mr. Esipisu’s phone
was switched off.
One Kenyatta administration
official said that “there seems to be a shutdown of information” within the
government, and no real details are getting out to its citizens. The official
requested anonymity to speak candidly about internal government
operations.
Meanwhile, US, Israeli and British forensics
experts were preparing to enter the mall to help Kenyan authorities assess what
is now a vast crime scene. It is expected that their inquiries will continue for
at least a week.
“We will provide additional
assistance in the coming days to investigate this attack and to bring its
organizers and perpetrators to justice,” said Robert Godec, the US ambassador to
Kenya. “We will continue to work together with Kenya to stop the scourge of
terrorism.”
Kenyatta said that “we
cannot confirm the details at present” of reports that two American citizens and
a Briton were among the attackers.
By the end of Wednesday in Nairobi, a new hashtag had emerged,
#WeAreOne_dering.
-----------------------------------------------------------
U.S. Agents Already Sifting Rubble of Kenya Mall Attack
U.S. federal agents have
joined a team of international investigators to sift through the still smoking
rubble of the Kenyan shopping mall
that was the site of a four-day terrorist rampage, beginning the painstaking
process of looking for clues about the attackers, officials said today.
Calling the investigation an
"elaborate process," Joseph Ole Lenku, Kenya's interior secretary, said
investigators from the U.S. and INTERPOL were already on the scene looking for
fingerprint, DNA and ballistic evidence.
He said the investigation of
the site will take at least a week, but investigators did not expect to find a
significant number of victims still trapped in the rubble.
"We are convinced that there
will be insignificant if any bodies still holed up there except for the
terrorists," he told reporters today.
The investigation has now
turned to how the terrorists, associated with the Somalia-base Islamist group
al-Shabab, were able to execute the attack using machine guns, grenades and
homemade bombs that killed at least 72 people.
An interior ministry spokesman said today that the band of assailants had
rented a shop in the mall for three months, storing weapons and plotting
Saturday's rampage.
Later that same day, Lenku
said that claim was only a "rumor" until it had been verified by the
investigation.
"As to whether they had a
shop in the mall is something we cannot say categorically," Lenku said.
He said five suspects were killed and 10 taken into custody. Authorities,
he said, were working to establish the identities and nationalities of the
suspects.
A U.S. official briefed on
the Nairobi investigation says American authorities still cannot confirm whether
any Americans were involved in the Nairobi attack, a possibility that was raised
by Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta and the country's foreign minister. Nairobi
officials also said they were checking reports that a British woman took part in
the assault.
The U.S. official says
authorities intend to conduct the necessary analysis, including biometric
analysis and fingerprints.
A former diplomat who lives
in Nairobi and maintains Kenyan government and international security contacts
told ABC News Tuesday night that intelligence services in Kenya had detected
surveillance of Westgate Mall being conducted in the past year, but said hard
intelligence it was being targeted for a terror attack wasn't uncovered.
"The intelligence hasn't
been specific," the former diplomat told ABC News. The former diplomat described
the al-Shabab attack as "strictly for revenge" because of Kenya's help in
defeating the terror group al-Shabab in Somalia. The ex-diplomat said Muslims
were "executed" alongside non-Muslims in Westgate. "It was completely
indiscriminate murder," he said.
Kenya beings three days of
national mourning today to remember the victims as troops dig through the rubble
of the building, scouring for bodies of victims and terrorists buried after part
of the complex collapsed.
Troops remain deployed at
the Westgate mall following the conclusion of tense four-day siege, which began
Saturday when armed members of al-Shabab opened fire on shoppers.
The death toll is expected
to rise as Kenyan forces sift through the rubble after three floors of the mall
collapsed Tuesday during the final hours of fighting.
Dorcas Mwangi said she hid
from the attackers for four hours under a pile of suitcases. She says her
brother texted her, warning the terrorists were killing non-Muslims. Her brother
sent an Islamic prayer so she could memorize it.
"I was able to memorize it… In case they found me," she said.
American Bendita Malakia,
now back on U.S. soil, says she hid in the backroom of a home goods store for
nearly five hours while the terrorists controlled the mall in the opening hours
of the siege.
"We just heard explosions
and starting crawling out. It was very, very, very scary," Malakia
recounted.
A haunting image emerged Tuesday showing a family playing dead until a
plain clothed police officer came to their rescue.
--------------------------------------------------
Who Is the 'White Widow'? U.K. Mom Could Have Kenyan Connection
By Beth Greenfield, Shine
Staff | Healthy Living – 3 hours
ago
attack at the Westgate
Shopping Mall in Nairobi have prompted rampant speculation that it could have
been a suspect wanted for years by officials: Samantha Lewthwaite, otherwise
known as the "White Widow." More on Shine: Who Is Assata Shakur, the FBI's
Most Wanted Female Terrorist? “Nothing is being ruled out,” noted State House
spokesman Manoah Esipisu
regarding whether the woman could be among the dead hostage takers in the mall’s
rubble. Lewthwaite got her nickname from the British press after her husband,
Germaine Maurice Lindsay, was named as one of the four suicide bombers in the
deadly London “7/7” attacks on the subway system in 2005. And although she
initially condemned his actions, she went missing shortly thereafter, arousing
suspicions, and later emerged as a terrorist suspect in her own right. According
to BBC journalist Peter Taylor, who just returned from Kenya, Lewthwaite has
become a sort of “mythological figure,” adding, “If she is dead, then she would
have achieved the kind of martyrdom that her husband, Germaine Lindsay,
achieved.” Still, some doubt that she could have played a role in the mall
siege, as female involvement in such an attack would be "very unusual,"
according to CNN security analyst Peter Bergen.
"Typically these groups are misogynist," he said. "Their view is the woman
should be in a home and shrouded in a body veil." More on Yahoo: Terrorists Claim 137 Killed in Kenya Mall
Attack
Hostage reports that a white woman was among the
armed terrorists in Kenya’s recent deadly
So why do so many speculate
that Lewthwaite was involved? Here’s what we know about the 29-year-old mother
of three (or four):Her childhood. Born in Buckinghamshire, England, to
British soldier Andy Lewthwaite and Christine Allen, Samantha spent much of her
early life in the town of Aylesbury and in Northern Ireland. A local politician
in Aylesbury, Raj Khan, who knew her family socially, told the BBC that he is surprised at the idea of her involvement
in Kenya — especially speculation that puts her in a leadership role. “She was
an average, British, young, ordinary girl. She had a very great personality. She
didn’t have very good confidence,” he said. “She was not strong-headed. And
that’s why I find it absolutely amazing that she is supposed to be the head of
an international criminal terrorist organization,” he said. Her
conversion. Lewthwaite converted to Islam when she was a teenager, with the
aid of a local Muslim family she befriended, according to the BBC. She stood out
at school after that, teacher Novid Shaid told the radio network. “She seemed to be really proud wearing
the hijab; there was a bubbly feeling around her,” he said, adding that,
eventually, “we noticed her wearing the full jalabiya [robe], which some
converts tend to do when they become more serious,” he said. She then studied
religion at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London for two
months.Her marriage. The teenager met Lindsay in an Islamic Internet chat
room, according to the BBC. They married after a few months, made their home in
Aylesbury, and soon had a child together. Reports say that she had two or three
more children after the birth of her second one, in 2005. Her link to the
London bombings. Lindsay, a Jamaican native and Islamic convert who became a
radical terrorist, was one of four people who set off bombs in the subways,
killing 56 people, including themselves. Pregnant at the time with their second
child, Lewthwaite, then just 21, condemned her husband's actions as "abhorrent”
and told the Sun, “How these people
could have turned him and poisoned his mind is dreadful. He was an innocent,
naïve and simple man. I suppose he must have been an ideal candidate.” Shortly
thereafter, she disappeared. Her reemergence. Lewthwaite
has been wanted by Kenyan police on terrorist charges since 2011, for allegedly
plotting an attack on “Western targets” in Kenya, reported the Telegraph. She was
believed to be on the run in East Africa, possibly with Habib Ghani, who might
have been married to her. The two were charged for allegedly working closely
with Jermaine Grant (currently on trial in Kenya) when police discovered their
bombing plots. Lewthwaite vanished. Earlier this month, Ghani reportedly died in an
ambush outside of Mogadishu after fleeing Somali terrorist group al-Shabaab —
the same group claiming responsibility for the latest Kenya attack. Her ties
to South Africa. Lewthwaite used an assumed South African identity to take
out bank loans and rent property in Johannesburg, eNews Channel Africa (eNCA) reported Wednesday. Using the known alias Natalie Faye
Webb, she rented at least three properties around Johannesberg (though it was
unclear whether she ever lived there), ran up debts of $8,600, and used the fake
passport to enter Kenya in 2011. Her alleged blog. Though
unsubstantiated, reports in 2012
claimed Lewthwaite was behind a telling blog post (since removed from the
Internet) called “Fears and Tears: Confessions of a Female Mujahid,” posted on
the site of Muslim Youth Centre, a Kenyan ally of al-Shaabab. In it, the
anonymous writer warned, “Fear can make you do many things,” and wrote, “My
decision to revert [sic] to Islam is the most precious gift that my maker has
bestowed upon me.” Related:10 Female Fugitives Wanted by the
FBIWho Is Katherine
Russell, Widow of Boston Marathon Bombing Suspect Tamerlan
Tsarnaev?
Kenya mall siege 'over' but death toll unclear
James Macharia and Duncan Miriri 23
hours ago
By James Macharia and Duncan
Miriri
NAIROBI (Reuters) - As Kenya
began three days of mourning on Wednesday for at least 67 people killed in the
siege of a Nairobi mall, it was unclear how many more hostages may have died
with the Somali Islamist attackers buried in the rubble.
Declaring final victory over
the al Qaeda-linked gunmen from al Shabaab who stormed the Westgate shopping
center on Saturday, President Uhuru Kenyatta said that three floors in a part of
the mall had collapsed near the end of the operation, leaving an unknown number
of bodies under steel and concrete.
It was not clear what caused
the structure to come down.
Five militants had been shot dead, Kenyatta said, and six security
personnel died in the four days of fighting.
Sixty-one civilians had so
far been confirmed dead, Kenyatta added. Kenyan officials declined to say how
many of 63 people whom the Red Cross had earlier classed as unaccounted for may
also have died in a showdown with guerrillas, who had threatened to kill their
hostages and go down fighting.
Eleven people suspected of
involvement with the well-planned and executed assault were in custody, the
Kenyan president added. But he did not say how many, if any, were gunmen taken
alive and how many may have been people arrested elsewhere.
It was also unclear whether
intelligence reports of American or British gunmen would be confirmed. Al
Shabaab denied that any women took part, after British sources said the fugitive
widow of one of the 2005 London suicide bombers might have some role.
The shattered mall, an imposing, Israeli-built symbol of a new prosperity
for some in Africa while many remain mired in poverty, lay largely silent
overnight, after days of gunfire, explosions and bloodshed.
"The operation is now over,"
Kenyatta told Kenyans in a televised address. "We have ashamed and defeated our
attackers."
He announced three days of national mourning.
BODIES IN RUBBLE
Police said the attackers,
who devastated restaurants and shops at a busy Saturday lunchtime, spraying
bullets and grenades at Kenyans and foreigners, were now either dead or in
custody.
"Now it is for the forensic
and criminal experts," said a police spokesman, Masoud Mwinyi.
Some of the 63 people
reported to the Red Cross as still missing may simply not have been at the mall,
or may have later made it home without the agency being made aware. But some, at
least, appear to have been held hostage.
"There are several bodies
trapped in the rubble, including the terrorists," Kenyatta said. At the weekend,
he had said there were between 10 and 15 militants holed up in the mall.
Several foreigners of many
nationalities have already been named among the dead. The mall was a favorite
with expatriates.
It is unclear how many foreigners may still be missing.
Survivors of the assault
told tales of horror and narrow escapes. Some made it out after hours, even
days, of hiding in terror. The uncle of one British four-year-old told the Sun
newspaper his nephew had told a militant "You're a very bad man", as the gunman
let some children and their mother go.
Officials said the raiders
had set a major fire on Monday in a supermarket. On Tuesday, a thin trail of
smoke drifted into a soggy sky as darkness fell, the result, rescue volunteers
said, of soldiers detonating locked doors in a search for militants.
Police let some people
retrieve cars they left behind when shoppers fled in panic. Journalists and
others were kept well away behind a security cordon.
FOREIGN FIGHTERS
Kenyatta said he could not
confirm intelligence reports of British and American militants, adding that
forensic tests were being carried out to establish their nationalities. The
government denied speculation that women were among the guerrillas, but said
some had been dressed as women. That may have been a ploy to smuggle more
weapons past mall guards.
It is unusual, if not
unknown, for Islamist militants to use female fighters: "We have an adequate
number of young men who are fully committed & we do not employ our
sisters in such military operations #Westgate," al Shabaab said on
Twitter.
It also dismissed comments by a Kenyan minister that two or three of the
militants were young Somali or Arab Americans.
A British security source
said it was possible that Samantha Lewthwaite, widow of Germaine Lindsay one of
the London suicide bombers of July 7 2005, was involved in the Nairobi siege in
some way. "It is a possibility. But nothing definitive or conclusive yet," the
source said.
Lewthwaite is wanted in
connection with an alleged plot to attack expensive hotels and restaurants in
Kenya.
Making no mention of gunmen
still in the mall, al Shabaab also drew a link to the most recent Islamist
attack in London, when a soldier was stabbed to death on a busy street in May in
the suburb of Woolwich. Michael Adebolajo and a fellow British Muslim convert of
Nigerian descent face trial for murder.
"It's an eye for an eye and
a tooth for a tooth...' Remember Mujahid Adebolajo? This is what he meant. His
was #Woolwich, #Westgate ours!" read another al Shabaab Twitter post.
"These cowards will meet
justice as will their accomplices and patrons, wherever they are," said
Kenyatta.
KENYATTA
He thanked other leaders,
including U.S. President Barack Obama, for their support and used his address to
praise the response of the Kenyan people and call for national unity, six months
after his election was marked by ethnic tensions.
"Kenya has stared down evil and triumphed," he said.
Many Kenyans agree that the
bloodshed has helped foster a greater sense of national unity.
"We are all talking about
it. The one good thing is that the whole of Kenya has become one, except for al
Shabaab," said Vipool Shah, who helped pull bodies out of the mall.
Kenyatta's focus on Kenya's
troubles, and of his role in a global campaign against terrorism, was a reminder
that he faces trial at The Hague in a few weeks time for crimes against humanity
over violence that followed a 2007 election. The International Criminal Court
adjourned the trial of his vice president this week because of the Westgate
attack.
Kenyatta and his government
have urged the ICC to drop the case and warm words for the Kenyan leadership
from Western allies during the siege may have boosted their hopes that the court
might be pressed to shelve proceedings in the interests of shoring up an
important partner in the fight against al Qaeda.
The Nairobi attack came at a
time when several violent Islamist groups from Mali to Algeria and Nigeria to
Kenya have tapped into local grievances. But all have espoused an anti-Western,
anti-Christian creed and are striking at state authority and international
interests.
SHABAAB RESURGENT?
Regional intelligence
experts believe the Nairobi raiders were members of a crack unit loyal to leader
Ahmed Godane, who has been seeking to rebrand al Shabaab as a significant
international jihadist group.
Al Shabaab had threatened
revenge since Kenyan troops joined the war against Islamists in its chaotic
northern neighbor two years ago. The group created funding, recruiting and
training networks in Kenya. Kenyatta dismissed an al Shabaab demand to pull
Kenyan troops from Somalia after the mall siege began.
The attack bears out Western
concern that Somalia, a hotspot in the U.S.-led war on Islamist militants across
the globe, may be a launchpad for strikes on regional countries even as African
troops put them on the defensive in the Horn of Africa state.
Obama, whose father was
Kenyan, said he believed the country - scene of one of al Qaeda's first big
attacks, in 1998, when a bomb devastated the U.S. embassy in Nairobi - would
continue to be a regional pillar of stability.
Somalia's prime minister
appealed in Geneva for international support to combat al Shabaab, but said a
military solution to their insurgency alone was not enough.
Abdi Farah Shirdon said: "We
still have a difficult journey ahead of us. A military solution alone is not
enough, promotion of rule of law, greater regional cooperation and economic
stability and provision of public services are all key factors."
(Reporting by James
Macharia, Duncan Miriri and Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Pascal Fletcher in Nairobi.;
Writing by Edmund Blair and James Macharia.; Editing by Alastair Macdonald and
Christopher Wilson)
------------------------------------------------------------
Westgate
attack: Kenyan authorities on the spot over slip-ups
Updated Wednesday, September 25th 2013 at
23:40 GMT +3
|
Armoured personnel carriers leave Westgate area after the end of
operation against terrorists. [PHOTO:
standard]
|
By JAMES MBAKA
KENYA: Apparent
contradictions in official accounts of the four-day siege on the Westgate Mall
have put authorities on the spot.
A classic example was who
started the fire that caused plumes of thick black smoke that billowed from the
building on Monday. Initially, authorities claimed security forces had done it
as a tactic but they later blamed it on the attackers.
At some point, senior
government officials and security operatives contradicted each other in the open
and then made belated alterations under the guise of ‘official
information’.
Convince Kenyans
As President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday evening addressed the nation and
declared that “ Al-Shabaab are defeated”, his statement appeared to
attempt to convince Kenyans and the world at large that the fierce battle to
reclaim the mall was over.
The president’s message was
that 67 people, including six soldiers, had been killed as a result of the
attack on Westgate. He noted that five attackers had also been killed and 11 of
them captured. According to the earlier figures, the number of those arrested
was 16.
However, the Interior
minister had earlier in the day stated that security agents had arrested 10
suspects for interrogation in connection to the Westgate attack.
It became difficult to verify the truth of the statements being released
after the military drove away journalists covering the attack.
Claims that security forces
had rescued people on Monday and Tuesday morning could not be verified after the
government failed to release the figures. The media, which had camped only 300m
from the gate, did not see any hostage being rescued as the number of those held
by attackers remained unclear.
On Sunday, the government
had estimated the number of hostages to be 30, including children, but the media
was not given the actual figures as the rescue mission purportedly
continued.
Only ambulances and military
pick-ups could be seen driving up to the entrance doors before speeding off,
raising anxiety that they were ferrying dead bodies.
The military said three floors caved in but the cause has not been
established.
While addressing the press
accompanied by Inspector-General of Police David Kimaiyo and Chief of Staff
Major General Julius Karangi, Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph ole Lenku
appeared to slip up on what appeared to be a rehearsed statement and suggested
that the military was responsible for the fire before the two officers nudged
him into recanting the statement, and blaming the fire on the terrorists.
President Kenyatta, who is
also the Commander-in-Chief of the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF), announced on
Tuesday evening that the siege was over, but added that the losses were
“immense”.
But late on Monday, the Interior ministry on its Twitter handle had already
declared the siege was over.
“We’re in control of
Westgate,” read the tweet, about three-and-a-half days after Al-Shabaab militants
stormed the mall.
State House spokesman Manoah Esipisu also said all hostages were believed
to have been evacuated.
“Our special forces are
inside the building checking the rooms. We think that everyone, the hostages,
have been evacuated, but we do not want to take any chances,” he was quoted to
have said.
“The hostages who were being
held by the Mujahideen inside Westgate are still alive, looking quite
disconcerted but, nevertheless, alive,” Al-Shabaab said in a
message posted on its latest Twitter handle after an earlier one was pulled
down.
Police tweet
Also on Tuesday morning,
before the break of the stand-off, Kenyan police posted a message on Twitter
saying they were diffusing explosives set up by the militants at the mall.
“We are doing a clean-up of explosives that had been set up by the
terrorists,” Kenyan police said in a tweet.
“The Special Forces call
this sanitising. At the moment, they have not met any resistance, but of course
we are not ruling out the possibility that there are a couple of them hiding in
a remote room or corner,” said Esipisu.
But fierce sporadic shooting
erupted again on the same day – hours after officials had claimed the special
forces were “in control” of the mall – and Al-Shabaab had also
claimed to be still holding hostages.
As government authorities
insisted it was in control, sporadic bursts could be heard again. Earlier on
Tuesday, Al-Shabaab bragged in
a Twitter message that their fighters were “still holding their ground”.
There were conflicting
reports about the true identity of the attackers, six of whom are reported to
have been killed by Kenyan special forces during the siege, and the number of
those who were allegedly in custody.
No details have been given
on the number of hostages freed, or those still being held, but 63 people were
earlier recorded missing by the Kenya Red Cross. This figure was thought to
include hostages as well as those possibly killed by their captors.
Another issue raised was the
identity of the woman suspected to be the commander of the attackers. Witnesses
said they saw a woman leading the militants, but the Interior minister said
there was no woman even as the President acknowledged the presence of a
woman.
On multiple occasions,
Western security officials fear that several fighters slipped out of the mall
during the mayhem of the attack, dropping their guns and disguising themselves
as civilians, an account echoed by some witnesses.
---------------------------------------------
Arrested
Briton 'not significant' to Kenya attack probe
Updated Wednesday, September 25th 2013 at
18:01 GMT +3
A British national arrested in Nairobi is
"not of significant interest" to the investigation into the mall siege that
killed at least 72 people, Britain's top diplomat in Kenya said on
Wednesday.
The Foreign Office in London
confirmed the comment by British High Commissioner Christian Turner, which had
appeared on media websites, but provided no further details.
According to the Daily Mail newspaper, a 35-year-old Briton of Somali
origin was arrested at Nairobi's
Jomo Kenyatta airport as he attempted to leave Kenya on a Turkish Airlines flight.
A Foreign Office spokesman
declined to comment on the details contained in the report, saying only that the
British authorities were aware of the arrest of a Briton in
the Kenyan capital and stood ready to provide consular assistance.
A Kenyan anti-terrorism
police unit source also said a British citizen of Somali origin was detained
after missing his flight at Nairobi airport, and was now being questioned. He
gave no more details.
The Daily Mail said the man
had attracted attention at the airport because he had bruising to his face, was
wearing dark glasses and was behaving suspiciously.
The newspaper quoted Kenyan
officials as saying the man's British passport appeared to be genuine and it
contained a Kenyan visa, although there was no stamp indicating when and how he
had entered the country.
The newspaper also said the man said under questioning that his facial
injuries happened during a recent visit to Somalia.
Bomb disposal experts and
investigators were searching through the wreckage of the Westgate shopping mall
on Wednesday after a four-day confrontation with Islamist militants.
-REUTERS
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Mystery of 71 missing persons as Nairobi’s Westgate Mall
siege ends
Updated Wednesday, September 25th 2013 at 23:40 GMT
+3
|
How the attack happened
|
By NYAMBEGA GISESA
NAIROBI; KENYA:
Forensic investigators sifted through the rubble at the Westgate Mall as
questions lingered about the fate of dozens reported missing at the end of the
deadly four-day siege.
Authorities had indicated
the terrorists had hostages inside the upscale shopping complex during the
standoff, but authorities, curiously, appeared to avoid the matter or give
inconclusive responses after prodding.
President Kenyatta on Tuesday night said three floors of the building had
collapsed and “there were several bodies still trapped in the rubble including
some terrorists.”
On Wednesday, Interior
Cabinet Secretary Joseph Ole Lenku said although some bodies could still be
trapped in the rubble, the number of the dead “is not expected to increase
significantly.”
Officially, 67 people — 61
civilians and six security agents — were killed during the attack after gunmen
struck the shopping complex on Saturday morning firing indiscriminately at
shoppers and staff.
But the Kenya Red Cross
Society (KRCS) reported a death toll of 69, and added 63 were recorded as
missing. The Government has blamed the inconsistency on a possible “double
count” by aid workers. However, the last update given by KRCS yesterday
afternoon points out that “the number of persons reported to KRCS as missing has
risen to 71.”
Other than being involved in
forensics, according to the Times of Israel, the role of Israelis in the
Westgate Mall situation has not been clear.
On Monday, Israeli defence
officials confirmed a team was dispatched to Nairobi within hours of the hostage
crisis, but said that armed fighting units were not part of the
delegation.
On Wednesday morning,
soldiers from Langata’s Maroon Commandos were among the last combat units to
leave the mall after the final assault early Tuesday.
Other teams that took part in the operation were the Kenya Defence Forces’
75 Artillery, 20 Para, 30 Special Forces and 40 Rangers Strike Force unit.
“We left behind a team of
Israeli experts who came with small dogs with big ears to start carrying out
forensic (investigation),” said a soldier involved in the final operation.
The terrorists are said to
have stuffed most of the bodies in specific rooms that were close to the source
of the fire and where part of the building caved in.
“It might take several days
to retrieve some of the bodies that might have been trapped in the debris,” said
another soldier.
On Tuesday after soldiers defeated the terrorists, one of the KDF soldiers
described a “scene from a horror movie”.
“There was blood everywhere.
Some bodies were burnt and others rotting,” he told The Standard. In some rooms,
bodies were strewn on the floor, added the soldier, who declined to be named as
he discussed the sensitive operation.
Yesterday, those who spoke
to The Standard demanded a list of people killed or injured during the Westgate
Mall siege. “Where can I go to find a complete list of Kenyans killed or injured
at Westgate? I have a friend there that I have not heard from,” Ike Okafor
enquired from The Standard last evening through e-mail.
Another mystery surrounds
the terrorists – although officials estimated them at between 10 and 15, only
five were reported killed after Special Forces stormed the building.
Explosion
There are questions as to the whereabouts of the rest, although authorities
say 10 suspects are in custody.
By the time we went to press
yesterday, a loud explosion was reported in Wajir town. However, The Standard
could not immediately confirm what caused the explosion.
Earlier yesterday, forensic
experts scoured the debris at Westgate Mall to identify bodies and secure vital
evidence. Foreign teams from Israel, US, Canada, Germany and UK joined the
operation.
Authorities said the
priority was debris clearance to facilitate immediate recovery of bodies.
Interior Cabinet Secretary
Joseph Ole Lenku said the process, which involves fingerprinting, DNA and
ballistics examination, would go on for the next seven days.
Lenku gave an update of the
situation flanked by the Chief of Defence Forces Gen Julius Karangi,
Inspector-General David Kimaiyo, Defence Cabinet Secretary Raychelle Omamo and
her Foreign Affairs counterpart Amina Mohamed, among others.
Authorities said they were
yet to establish the identities of the terrorists. “We have also been asked
about the presence of a woman among the terrorists. We cannot conclusively
confirm the identity of any of the suspects until the forensic investigations
have been concluded,” he added.
On Wednesday, President
Uhuru Kenyatta chaired an emergency Cabinet meeting and another by the National
Security Council.
Secretary to the Cabinet
Francis Kimemia said the special NSAC meeting was “to push for a revitalised
national and regional counter terrorism strategy and disaster management.”
Officials also fought off
claims of intelligence failure, saying the Government had foiled several terror
plots in the recent past.
“The Government has received
many terror alerts over the last two years, and prevented them without the
knowledge of Kenyans. This was unfortunate,” Interior PS Mutea Iringo tweeted
Wednesday.
Today, the Director General
of the National Intelligence Service Michael Gichangi is expected to appear
before the National Assembly Committee on Defence and Foreign Relations where
the Westgate crisis could feature.
---------------------------------------------------
Kenya
government defends National Intelligence Service over Westgate terror
attack
Updated Wednesday, September 25th 2013 at 23:36 GMT
+3
Marine workers to lose jobs in massive lay-off by State
Massive lay-off is looming at
Mombasa based Kenya Marine and Fisheries Institution (KEMFRI) as the government
moves to cutback wage bills in the country’s research institutions.
|
State defends NIS over Westgate
terror attack Photo: STANDARD
|
By ALLY JAMAH
Nairobi,KENYA: The government has defended itself from accusations
of intelligence failures that resulted in the horrific killings by the
Al-Shabaab terrorists at Westgate Mall.
Interior Ministry Principal
Secretary Mutea Iringo yesterday said the State intelligence agencies have
prevented many terror attacks in the recent past noting that the Westgate
killings are “unfortunate” since it was among the “few instances” in which the
killers had outsmart government agencies.
“Over the last few years,
since terrorism became a major threat to the country, we have been receiving
information about possible terror incidents. We have pre-empted many of them
behind the scenes without telling Kenyans. It is unfortunate that the Westgate
attacks happened,” he said.
Iringo declined to confirm
whether the government received any specific intelligence on the Westgate attack
from Nairobi Senator Mike Sonko, who has claimed that he had forwarded the
information to the National Intelligence Service ( NIS), which refused
to act on it.
On Monday, President Uhuru Kenyatta also defended the
intelligence-gathering agency against criticisms of failure saying they have
successfully prevented attacks in the past and should be strengthened with more
resources and skills to do a better job.
A July 19, twitter posting by the Al-Shabaab group seemed to suggest that
the group was planning a massive attack on Kenyan targets. The posting, on the
harsh tag @HSMPress Office read: “A spectacular Al-Shabaab attack with fifty
plus deaths and guaranteed extended media coverage is finalised. #Kenya or
#Somali? Godane ponders.”
“Godane” refers to Al-Shabaab leader Ahmed AbdiGodane, also known as
Mukhtar Abu Zubair,
Criticisms have been
mounting against NSIS’s capacity to collect valuable information that would
prevent possible terror attacks with Members of Parliament calling for reforms
in the intelligence agency to boost its capacity to protect Kenyans.
The lawmakers expressed
outrage at the security lapse that allowed the terrorists, among them
foreigners, into the country smuggling in arms and holding the military in a
standoff for four days
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