KENYA-SECURITY/WESTGATE REOPENING Nairobi mall reopens nearly two years after militant attack

Record ID: 146483

  • Title: KENYA-SECURITY/WESTGATE REOPENING Nairobi mall reopens nearly two years after militant attack
  • Date: 18th July 2015
  • Summary: NAIROBI, KENYA (JULY 18, 2015) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF WESTGATE MALL VARIOUS OF ARMED POLICE OFFICERS AND MALL SECURITY AT MALL ENTRANCE VARIOUS OF SECURITY OFFICER CHECKING CAR USING SNIFFER DOG WESTGATE MALL ENTRANCE, STAFF AT ENTRANCE SIGN READING (English); 'WESTGATE' VARIOUS OF PEOPLE GOING INTO MALL INTERIOR OF MALL VARIOUS OF COFFEE SHOP AT MALL (SOUNDBITE) (English)
  • Embargoed: 2nd August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA8UNMKTK2P5VP0FXHT7ARLZET1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Kenya's Westgate shopping mall reopened on Saturday (July 18) for the first time since al Shabaab gunmen stormed the mall killing at least 67 people in September 2013.
    The mall was once a symbol of Kenya's growing wealth and cosmopolitan flair, and later of the security threat posed by the Somali Islamist group al Shabaab.
    Security was tight around the mall as shop owners opened their businesses for the first time since the attack.
    About half the shops that opened had undergone extensive refurbishment.
    "I am happy because if you see all these people it makes you delighted, people have forgotten, people are happy again, our economy is going to shoot," said Pauline Wanjiru, one of the shoppers at the mall.
    Businesses lost millions of dollars after the gunmen stormed the mall, tossing grenades, spraying shoppers with bullets and occupying parts of the building for days.
    European nations, the United States and Australia have issued numerous travel advisories cautioning their citizens from visiting parts of the country due to the security threats.
    "The re-opening of this has given us a new impetus, it has given us a new fighting spirit to show that despite the fact the when terrorists attack one of their main aim is to ensure that where they destroy people pull down those buildings and put up memorial parks but in Westgate we refused to do that," said Eric Muluka, another shopper.
    The reopening comes a week before U.S. President Barack Obama visits Nairobi - a sign, according to the city's governor, that the capital was safe.
    Nairobi Governor, Evans Kidero, said security had been improved around the city.
    "We are happy that we could have been hurt but our spirits have not been broken, it is a demonstration of the determination and the positiveness and the resilience and the indomitable spirit of the Kenyan people so we are back. I know there will be apprehensions but as a country we are safer than ever and we will continue to work to ensure that our country is safe," said Kidero.
    Al Shabaab has killed more than 400 people on Kenyan soil over the last two years, including 148 in a rampage by masked gunmen at Garissa University in the north-east of the country in April. The group says the attacks are in response to Kenya's deployment of troops in an African Union-led force that has been beating back the militants in Somalia.
    The attacks have battered Kenya's safari and beach tourism industry.
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