KENYA: Mourners attend the funeral for seven-month pregnant Nairobi mall attack victim Ruhila Adatia-Sood, a prominent radio personality in Kenya, who was killed during an attack by Islamic militants that left at least 72 dead

Record ID: 354001

  • Title: KENYA: Mourners attend the funeral for seven-month pregnant Nairobi mall attack victim Ruhila Adatia-Sood, a prominent radio personality in Kenya, who was killed during an attack by Islamic militants that left at least 72 dead
  • Date: 26th September 2013
  • Summary: NAIROBI, KENYA (SEPTEMBER 26, 2013) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MOURNERS MOURNERS LINED UP COFFIN BEING CARRIED BY MOURNERS VARIOUS OF MOURNERS CARRYING COFFIN GRAVE MOURNERS GATHERED (SOUNDBITE) (English) ISMAILI RELIGIOUS LEADER, RAMKRIE SHANSHARMA, SAYING: "Finally when she was shot, she called her husband and said 'I am shot' and then there was no way to go inside, there
  • Embargoed: 11th October 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA8FVYF606NFXKWTXALDF8R84QA
  • Story Text: A prominent Kenyan radio personality killed in an attack on a Nairobi shopping mall at the weekend that has been claimed by Somali Islamist militants, was laid to rest on Thursday (September 26) in a traditional Ismaili funeral ceremony.
    Ruhila Adatia-Sood was seven months pregnant with her first child when she died in the attack that killed at least 72 people in Westgate mall, known for its Western shops selling iPads and Nike shoes, in a hail of gunfire and grenades at lunchtime on Saturday (September 21).
    Friends and family remembered her last moments when she called her husband Ketan Sood, a USAID employee, soon after the attack to tell him she had been shot.

    "Finally when she was shot, she called her husband and said 'I am shot' and then there was no way to go inside, there was no way to go inside and reach to her and then two, two and a half hours she was just bleeding, bleeding bleeding and after two and a half hours she died," said Ramkrie Shansharma, an Ismailiah religious leader.

    "Ruhila, it is very, very sad and very terrible. They have killed her and a child which was unborn. She was seven months pregnant and her colleague was describing on the radio one day, on television that when she met her she was always telling her, we are normal, we are normal, the baby is very safe and she was very happy to see that baby and those people have killed this baby, an innocent baby who has not seen, has not come to this world," he added.
    The attack on the mall ended on Tuesday (September 24) when Kenyan troops detonated explosives to get through locked doors inside the mall as they searched for militants or booby traps.
    Three floors collapsed after the blasts and a separate fire weakened the structure of the vaulted, marble-tiled building. Officials said the blaze arose from militants lighting mattresses as a decoy.
    Kenya has said 10 to 15 attackers launched the raid.
    Al Shabaab said it launched the assault to demand Kenya withdraw its troops fighting with African peacekeepers in Somalia. It said hostages were killed when Kenyan troops used gas to clear the mall, an allegation that officials dismissed as "propaganda".
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