Saturday, September 28, 2013
Kenya has vowed not to bow to Shebab threats of more attacks if
troops are not pulled out of Somalia, following a devastating mall
attack in Nairobi by the Al-Qaeda-linked insurgents."We went to
Somalia because Al-Shebab was a threat to national security... We will
continue to take action on that front until our security and interests
in the country are protected," Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku told
reporters on Friday.
Somalia's Shebab chief Ahmed Abdi Godane said
the Nairobi Westgate mall carnage in which at least 67 people were
killed would be followed by "more bloodshed" unless Kenya left Somalia.
Kenya
invaded southern Somalia to attack Shebab bases two years ago, and
later joined the 17,700-strong African Union force deployed in the
country.
Funerals continued Friday for the victims on the third
and final day of official mourning, with President Uhuru Kenyatta
attending the service of his slain nephew.
As well as scores of
Kenyans, many of the dead were foreigners, including from Britain,
Canada, China, France, the Netherlands, India, South Africa and South
Korea.
Nigerian Nobel literature laureate Wole Soyinka and other
writers paid tribute to renowned Ghanaian poet and statesman Kofi
Awoonor who was among the dead.
"We denounce these enemies of
humanity," Soyinka said, accompanied by several writers and authors at a
press conference in Freedom Park in central Lagos, Nigeria's largest
city.
Dozens more are unaccounted for, with 59 people still listed
by the Red Cross as missing after the attack, one of the worst in
Kenya's history.
The extremists Friday gloated at the massacre,
which saw a group of gunmen storm the part Israeli-owned complex at
midday Saturday, firing from the hip and hurling grenades at shoppers
and staff, before holding off Kenyan and foreign forces with a barrage
of bullets for four days.
"The mesmeric performance by the
Westgate Warriors was undoubtedly gripping, but despair not folks, that
was just the premiere of Act 1," the group said in one of a string of
messages posted on social media.
Since the unprecedented 80-hour
siege ended late Tuesday, the Shebab have claimed responsibility for an
attack Thursday on a police compound on the border with Somalia, killing
two officers.
Attacks are common in Kenya's northeastern border
with Somalia, with regular grenade blasts or shooting ever since Kenyan
troops crossed into southern Somalia two years ago.
Close to 200
people were wounded in the four-day mall carnage in one of Nairobi's
largest shopping centres, which was popular among wealthy Kenyans,
diplomats, UN workers and other expatriates.
Police continued to
scour the fire-blackened rubble in Westgate for bodies and clues, with
Lenku insisting that contents of smashed shops would be protected from
looters.
Kenya's parliamentary defence committee meanwhile ordered
army, security and intelligence chiefs to answer questions about the
handling of the siege next week.
Police have pleaded for patience
as Kenyan and international teams -- including from Britain, the United
States, Israel, Germany, Canada and Interpol -- painstakingly examine
the mall.
With around a third of the building collapsed -- as
though hit by an earthquake -- and with the risk of booby traps amongst
the mangled wreckage, the work of international forensic and security
experts will take days to complete.
Several members of the Kenyan
forces involved in battle inside the mall said that the fire broke out
Monday after Kenyans fired at least two bazooka anti-tank rockets at the
gunmen, who were holed up in the strong room of a supermarket.
"In the end we had to use full force, we had to finish with these guys," said one member of the elite force.
Top
Interpol official Jean-Michel Louting, speaking near the mall, told AFP
the challenge for investigators was to try "to remove the three levels
that collapsed and see what is underneath".
Interpol issued an
international arrest notice at Kenya's request for 29-year-old Samantha
Lewthwaite, dubbed the 'White Widow', a reference to her marriage to one
of the suicide bombers who killed 52 people in London's July 2005
terror attacks.
Nairobi accuses her of alleged links to the Shebab
and the possession of explosives in a 2011 plot, and there has been
widespread media speculation over her possible role in Nairobi's deadly
siege, despite no concrete evidence so far.
Five suspected
attackers were killed in the mall and eight other people detained,
officials said. Three others have since been released without charge.
Kenya
further sought to shrug off the threats with the government issuing a
defiant statement to say plans to raise close to $1.5 billion (1.1
billion euros) in a debut international bond issue were unaffected.
"The
Kenyan economy, just like the spirit of our people, is unshaken by the
recent tragedy," Treasury Secretary Henry Rotich said in a statement.
Still the country remains traumatised.
Somalis
living in Kenya are terrified of retaliatory attacks, against the half a
million refugees as well as members of the native ethnic Somali
community.