Tuesday, October 01, 2013
Jewelry cases smashed. Mobile phones ripped from displays. Cash registers emptied. Alcohol stocks plundered.
For the second time in two months, poorly paid Kenyan security forces
that moved in to control an emergency are being accused of robbing the
very property they were supposed to protect. First the troops were
accused of looting during a huge fire in August at Nairobi's main
airport.
Now shop owners at Westgate Mall are returning to their stores after
last week's devastating terrorist attack to find displays ransacked and
valuables stolen.
One witness told The Associated Press that he saw a Kenyan soldier take cigarettes out of a dead man's pocket.
Shopkeepers spent Monday carting merchandise and other valuables out
of their stores and restaurants to prevent any more thefts. No one can
say for sure who is responsible, but Kenya's security forces are
strongly suspected.
Soon after the attack began on Sept. 21, Kenyan officials put a
cordon around the mall, allowing only security forces and a few
government personnel to pass through.
Since then, alcohol stocks from the restaurants have been depleted.
One business owner at the mall said money and mobile phones were taken
from bags and purses left behind in the mayhem. The owner insisted on
anonymity to avoid retribution from Kenya's government.
Employees of a book shop on the mall's second floor returned to find
registers yanked open and cash gone. The store's laptops were also
stolen. All the shop's books remained in place, said owner Paku Tsavani.
Perhaps reluctant to blame Kenyan security forces, Tsavani said he doesn't know who took his goods.
"Obviously the terrorists wouldn't steal those things, so we just don't know," Tsavani said.
Sandeep Vidyarthi went into the mall Sunday to help a relative
retrieve equipment from his dental practice. Inside he said he passed
shop after shop that had been looted, including the Rado store that
sells high-end Swiss watches.
As he was leaving the mall, Vidyarthi passed a jewelry shop near the
front entrance. The owner, he said, was presenting security officials
with a long list of missing precious stones and high-end necklaces.
"The jeweler had written down this very long list," he said.
It is ironic, said the management team of one Westgate business, that
store owners must now make reports of stolen goods to the same security
forces suspected of doing the thieving.
Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku confirmed the reports of theft
Sunday in a news conference. The majority of the responders to the
terrorist attack came from Kenya's military. A military spokesman did
not answer repeated calls for comment.
"Those responsible for looting will be prosecuted," Lenku said.
The mall attack also saw good Samaritans. Paresh Shah, a volunteer
who helped evacuate the injured and recover the dead during the first
day, said he carried out the body of Aleem Jamal.
Shah frowned at the memory and said he saw a Kenyan soldier take Jamal's cigarettes while in the ambulance.
"I could never do that, take a dead man's cigarettes," Shah said.
Jamal's family retrieved the body at the morgue, where his wife, Taz Jamal, said her husband's wallet was missing.
A team of terrorists entered Westgate Mall shortly after noon on a
busy Saturday, firing guns and throwing grenades. The attackers — the
Somali extremist group al-Shabab claimed responsibility — held off
Kenya's military and controlled at least parts of the mall for four
days.
The attack killed at least 67 people. The mall now has a gaping three-story hole in it from the siege.
Almost a week after the attack ended, more than three dozen people
remain unaccounted for, the head of the Kenyan Red Cross said Monday.
The government contends there are no remaining missing people.
"The only way to verify this is when the government declares the
Westgate Mall 100 percent cleared. Then we can resolve it," Red Cross
head Abbas Gullet said.
A morgue worker told AP on Monday that six body parts have been found
in the rubble. The worker, who insisted on anonymity because he was not
authorized to speak about information not yet released, said it was not
clear if the parts came from one or multiple bodies.
Five terrorists are believed to be under the rubble but no dead
hostages, Interior Minister Lenku said Sunday. Government officials have
said 10 to 15 terrorists attacked the mall. Lenku said some attackers
might have escaped.
"We do not rule out the possibility that when we were evacuating
people in the first stages of the operation, it is possible some could
have slipped out," he said.
FBI agents, along with investigators from Britain, Canada and
Germany, are participating in the investigation into the attack and are
aiding Kenyan forensic experts. Results are not expected until later
this week at the earliest.
Kenyan authorities have used anti-terrorism laws to detain a total of
12 people in connection with the attack, including one on Sunday. Three
have been set free, including a British man with a bruised face who was
reportedly arrested last week as he tried to board a flight from
Nairobi to Turkey while acting suspiciously, the British Foreign Office
confirmed Monday.
Ndung'u Githinji, chairman of parliament's foreign relations
committee, said officials will "rethink" Kenya's hospitality in
supporting refugee camps, a reference to Dadaab, a refugee camp near
Somalia filled with more than 400,000 Somalis. Security officials say
some elements in the camp support and facilitate terror attacks.