KENYA: Government spokesman says the official operation at the Westgate shopping centre has moved into a forensics investigation as relatives grieve for the deceased at a nearby mortuary

Record ID: 353984

  • Title: KENYA: Government spokesman says the official operation at the Westgate shopping centre has moved into a forensics investigation as relatives grieve for the deceased at a nearby mortuary
  • Date: 25th September 2013
  • Summary: NAIROBI, KENYA (SEPTEMBER 25, 2013) (REUTERS) STREET THAT LEADS TO MALL VARIOUS OF POLICE SECURITY / GUNS (SOUNDBITE) (English) GOVERNMENT SPOKESMAN MANOAH ESIPISU, SAYING: "Well as you very well know the president declared this job done yesterday. The next stage is to do with forensics, obviously it includes firstly checking the building and seeing where you need to go
  • Embargoed: 10th October 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA6E1NV1OCQSM4PYP0AKWF565NX
  • Story Text: As Kenya began three days of mourning on Wednesday (September 25) 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 centre on Saturday (September 21), 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.
    Government spokesman Manoah Esipisu said teams of forensics experts would begin searching through the rubble for evidence.

    "There is evidence under that rubble. Our forensics people need to be able to clear that rubble and examine the evidence," he said.
    Sixty-one civilians had so far been confirmed dead. 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.
    At Nairobi's city mortuary relatives of the deceased or missing waited for bodies to arrive.
    Adar Nyuor Odhiambo, whose son was killed, said she had been told by his manager on the morning of the attack that he was alive.

    "On Sunday morning, I received a call from his manager and I asked him whether my son was dead. He told me my son was not dead but he had sent him to Westlands on Saturday to run some errands for him."
    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.
    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.
    afr/lw/jrc
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