Wednesday, October 23, 2013

OF WOLVES AND LOOTERS OF WESTGATE MALL

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By Jerry Okungu
Nairobi, Kenya
October 23, 2013

John Allan Namu is a great Kenyan. Hate him or love him but he delivers.

On Tuesday night I stayed late to watch his latest expose on Westgate saga. He did not disappoint. When it was over I could not sleep. I kept on thinking of my country Kenya. I kept wondering what had really gone wrong with my beautiful country.
Then I remembered the Norfolk bombing of 1980, the American Embassy and surrounding buildings of 1998. Then Kikambala came flying through my memory like a kite.

I remembered that in 2010 during the World Cup finals, Ugandans were gathered in their droves in their most popular spot. On that day their joy was never to be. Al Shabaabs chose to make minced meat of Ugandan innocent people. Before that, they had attacked a Kampala bound bus from Nairobi that was full of Ugandans.

These two heinous acts made the Uganda government to make a conscious decision to deal with Al Shabaabs wherever they were. With available technology, they were hunted one by one from their Kenyan hideouts and shipped out to Uganda where they probably met hell on earth. Since then, no other attacks have taken place on Ugandan soil.

Next door Tanzania, it is almost impossible to hear of Al Shabaab operatives bombing Dar es Salaam at will. However, Nairobi has become a play ground for these murderers. They come and bomb us at will.

The reason we are suffering is because our leaders love money too much. When criminals come with loads of cash to open fake business accounts, buy apartments or rent posh residential areas, we take their money and look the other way. Whatever they do thereafter is not our concern. It is the reason every lowlife foreigner holds a Kenyan passport and an ID card.
Never mind that they don’t know where their grandmothers were buried, the name of their chief and a single world in Kiswahili.

Today, Eastleigh and the rest of Eastlands of Nairobi no longer belong to Nairobi. They were annexed a long time ago by Mogadishu and Juba. The more up market Fedha Estate area, Green Fields, Embakasi, South B, South C and Makadara residential areas have equally gone to Mogadishu grabbers. Now they have moved in droves to Milimani, Kilimani, Kileleshwa, Lavington, Mulolongo and the whole of Athi River all the way to Namanga. If today you visit Kajiado which is the traditional Maasai city, you may not recognize it. It went to our foreign friends a long time ago.

This background only helps us to understand the reason why Kenya is a soft target for terrorists. With this large population that is not vetted, it was easy for the wolves of Westgate and the white widow to find accommodation and assemble their deadly weapons of mass destruction right under our noses and plan evil at will.

Going through memory lane, where did the rain start beating us? When the Artur Brothers walked into Kenya and terrorized us for six good months with the full knowledge of the government of the day, what did we do? When the brothers invaded the Standard Newspaper and destroyed equipment and set a blaze news papers, what did we do? Didn’t we call them investors and gave them unprecedented privileges?

Is it not in Kenya where an ordinary civilian in the Rift Valley made himself Deputy Commissioner of Police without the knowledge of the Police Commissioner?

How many times between Kikambala bombings and today have we arrested terrorists and released them for lack of evidence? Or was money always changing hands?

When the Kenya Defence Forces, the Recce GSU Squad and the police stormed Westgate to release hostages, did these armed forces focus on the problem at hand or were they distracted by sudden wealth to be looted? Did the police and KDF briefly exchange fire to gain an upper hand?
The wolves came to Nairobi to kill human beings. They were not interested in cash, jewellery or other valuable items. Why did it take a whole army of Kenyan Police and KDF to get rid of just a handful of wolves who even had time to wash their feet and pray in Nakumatt?

Who set the building on fire and ordered the KDF to get “water” from Nakumatt when KDF have enough water to last them a life time?

As we move on with our lives, we hope that one day, someone more credible will tell Kenyans the truth about what happened at Westgate so that the relatives of the departed will be at peace with themselves. On this score Minister Ole Lenku and KDF Chief of Staff have let Kenyans down.



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