KENYA-SECURITY/WESTGATE MALL Scarred by Islamist attacks, Kenya set to re-open Westgate mall

Record ID: 147177

  • Title: KENYA-SECURITY/WESTGATE MALL Scarred by Islamist attacks, Kenya set to re-open Westgate mall
  • Date: 14th July 2015
  • Summary: NAIROBI, KENYA (JULY 14, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF WESTGATE MALL SECURITY OFFICERS AT ENTRANCE OF MALL MALL ENTRANCE SHOP SIGNS VARIOUS OF REPAIR WORKS GOING ON OUTSIDE MALL INTERIOR VIEW OF MALL / ESCALATORS MAN PAINTING WALL ELEVATOR GOING UP VARIOUS OF MEN PUTTING UP LETTERING ON CAFE WOMAN DISPLAYING SHOES IN WINDOW VARIOUS OF STORES IN MALL VARIOUS OF WESTGATE TENANT
  • Embargoed: 29th July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA4PGIMRBNOQUSBGN69TNKIIWIZ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL WHICH WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
    Kenya's Westgate shopping mall will reopen on Saturday, nearly two years after militants laid siege and killed at least 67 people inside.
    The high end mall once represented Kenya's growing wealth. But the building has now become symbolic of growing insecurity in the country after it was destroyed by Somalia's al-Shabaab militia in September 2013.
    Businesses lost millions of dollars after four gunmen stormed the mall, tossing grenades, spraying shoppers with bullets and occupying parts of the building for days.
    Saira Karim, a tenant at the mall, was putting final touches on her shop on Tuesday.
    "Because business has to go on, life has to go on and we are looking forward," said Karim. "And I think everybody is excited to come back to this Westgate mall, all the Kenyans are very excited."
    Divina Mose, a cleaner, was at the mall during the attack. She still remembers the events of the day vividly.
    "During the attack we hid in the kitchen and all we could hear were gunshots, when we were rescued we saw so many dead bodies. We saw a couple of people we used to work with dead on the floor. I just came back because of my job," said Mose.
    Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero said security had been improved around the city ahead of U.S President Barack Obama's visit to the country this month.
    "I would like to appeal to Nairobians, let us turn out on Saturday and come and shop because Kenya is safer than ever," said Kidero. "If it wasn't, Obama would not be coming."
    In the 18 months since the attack, al Shabaab has regularly hit Kenya. Gunmen took over a bus in Kenya's remote northeast last November and executed 28 non-Muslim passengers.
    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.
    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.
    Al Shabaab has killed more than 400 people on Kenyan soil in the past two years.
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