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Episode 447: The Con Man Who Took Down His Own Country (Then Ran For Office)
The Con Man Who Took Down His Own Country (Then Ran For Office)
March 26, 201310:07 PM
A few years back, the Kenyan government wanted to encourage exports. So the government said to local businesses: For every $100 of stuff you sell to someone outside Kenya, we'll give you Kenyan shillings worth another $20.
A con artist saw an opportunity. He launched a company that exported nonexistent gold for nonexistent dollars, and collected a real government bonus. Then, when he was about to get caught, he started his own bank. That's when the scam really took off.
On today's show: How one guy pulled off one of the largest financial scams in Kenyan history, avoided prison, re-branded himself as a man of God, and ran for a seat in parliament.
Audio 22:14
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013...took-down-his-own-country-then-ran-for-office
The Con Man Who Took Down His Own Country (Then Ran For Office)
March 26, 201310:07 PM
A few years back, the Kenyan government wanted to encourage exports. So the government said to local businesses: For every $100 of stuff you sell to someone outside Kenya, we'll give you Kenyan shillings worth another $20.
A con artist saw an opportunity. He launched a company that exported nonexistent gold for nonexistent dollars, and collected a real government bonus. Then, when he was about to get caught, he started his own bank. That's when the scam really took off.
On today's show: How one guy pulled off one of the largest financial scams in Kenyan history, avoided prison, re-branded himself as a man of God, and ran for a seat in parliament.
Audio 22:14
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013...took-down-his-own-country-then-ran-for-office
Kenya Supreme Court upholds election result
Kenya Supreme Court upholds election result
By TOM ODULA | Associated Press – 21 hrs ago
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya's Supreme Court on Saturday upheld the election of Uhuru Kenyatta as the country's next president, ending an election season that riveted the nation amid fears of a repeat of the 2007-08 postelection violence.
Outside the Supreme Court in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, police fired tear gas at supporters of losing candidate, Prime Minister Raila Odinga, the second time that has happened in this post-election period.
Outbreaks of violence by angry Odinga supporters were reported in some Nairobi slums and truckloads of police were called in to quell the demonstrations, according to reports on a police radio heard by an Associated Press reporter.
Jubilant Kenyatta supporters flooded the streets of downtown Nairobi, honking horns, blowing noisy plastic horns and chanting.
Saturday's verdict — following a drawn-out court case that raised tensions across the nation — means that Kenyatta, the son of Kenya's first president, will be sworn in as president on April 9. He will become the second sitting president in Africa to face charges at the International Criminal Court. Kenyatta and Deputy President-elect William Ruto both face charges that they helped orchestrate the 2007-08 postelection violence in which more than 1,000 people died. Both deny the charges. Ruto's trial is set to begin in late May; Kenyatta's is to start in July. Kenyatta has promised to report to The Hague.
Lawyers for challenger Odinga, who finished second, had argued before the Supreme Court that the election was marred by irregularities and that Kenyatta did not win enough votes to avoid a runoff election. According to official results, Kenyatta won 50.07 percent of the vote, narrowly avoiding a runoff election against Odinga, who said his case before the Supreme Court would put Kenya's democracy on trial.
But the Supreme Court's unanimous verdict, read out by Chief Justice Willy Mutunga, said the election was "conducted in compliance with the constitution and the law" and that Kenyatta and Ruto were legally elected.
"It is the decision of the court that (Kenyatta and Ruto) were validly elected," the ruling said. The reasons behind the judges' decision were not given Saturday. The chief justice said a detailed judgment would be delivered within two weeks.
George Oraro, the lawyer who argued Odinga's case before the court, said he respected the Supreme Court's decision.
"I've done my job and the court has done its job and I think Kenya has won. It has seen what the court process can do," Oraro said.
Unlike after the 2007 election, which degenerated into tribe-on-tribe violence that killed more than 1,000 people and displaced more than 500,000 villagers, this time Odinga said he had faith in the judiciary's ability to give him a fair hearing. Odinga, who said he would respect the court's decision whether it favored him or not, was set to address reporters in Nairobi later on Saturday.
The court's ruling ended days of anxiety since March 9, when Kenyatta was declared the winner of the March 4 vote that many described as the most complex in Kenya's history. More than 12 million Kenyans participated in the election. Some observers had expected a low registration of voters because of apathy following the 2007-08 violence, but campaigns by Kenyatta, Odinga and other presidential candidates led to the highest registration in the country ever. Kenya's electoral commission registered 14.3 million people.
Election day, though, did not go as planned. An electronic voter ID system intended to prevent fraud failed for reasons yet to be explained by the electoral commission. Vote officials instead used manual voter rolls.
After the polls closed, results were to be sent electronically to Nairobi, where officials would quickly tabulate a preliminary vote count in order to maximize transparency after rigging accusations following the 2007 vote. But that system failed, too. Election officials have indicated that computer servers were overloaded but have yet to fully explain the problem.
As the early count system was still being used, election results showed more than 330,000 rejected ballots, an unusually high number. But after the count resumed with the arrival in Nairobi of manual tallies, the number of rejected ballots was greatly reduced, and the election commission said the computer was mistakenly multiplying the number of rejected ballots by a factor of eight.
Odinga's lawyers told the Supreme Court this week that the switch from electronic voter identification to manual voter roll was contrived to allow inflation of Kenyatta's votes to take him past the 50 percent threshold. That accusation was vehemently denied by the electoral commission and Kenyatta's legal team.
http://news.yahoo.com/kenya-supreme-court-upholds-election-result-141537773.html
Kenya Supreme Court upholds election result
By TOM ODULA | Associated Press – 21 hrs ago
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya's Supreme Court on Saturday upheld the election of Uhuru Kenyatta as the country's next president, ending an election season that riveted the nation amid fears of a repeat of the 2007-08 postelection violence.
Outside the Supreme Court in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, police fired tear gas at supporters of losing candidate, Prime Minister Raila Odinga, the second time that has happened in this post-election period.
Outbreaks of violence by angry Odinga supporters were reported in some Nairobi slums and truckloads of police were called in to quell the demonstrations, according to reports on a police radio heard by an Associated Press reporter.
Jubilant Kenyatta supporters flooded the streets of downtown Nairobi, honking horns, blowing noisy plastic horns and chanting.
Saturday's verdict — following a drawn-out court case that raised tensions across the nation — means that Kenyatta, the son of Kenya's first president, will be sworn in as president on April 9. He will become the second sitting president in Africa to face charges at the International Criminal Court. Kenyatta and Deputy President-elect William Ruto both face charges that they helped orchestrate the 2007-08 postelection violence in which more than 1,000 people died. Both deny the charges. Ruto's trial is set to begin in late May; Kenyatta's is to start in July. Kenyatta has promised to report to The Hague.
Lawyers for challenger Odinga, who finished second, had argued before the Supreme Court that the election was marred by irregularities and that Kenyatta did not win enough votes to avoid a runoff election. According to official results, Kenyatta won 50.07 percent of the vote, narrowly avoiding a runoff election against Odinga, who said his case before the Supreme Court would put Kenya's democracy on trial.
But the Supreme Court's unanimous verdict, read out by Chief Justice Willy Mutunga, said the election was "conducted in compliance with the constitution and the law" and that Kenyatta and Ruto were legally elected.
"It is the decision of the court that (Kenyatta and Ruto) were validly elected," the ruling said. The reasons behind the judges' decision were not given Saturday. The chief justice said a detailed judgment would be delivered within two weeks.
George Oraro, the lawyer who argued Odinga's case before the court, said he respected the Supreme Court's decision.
"I've done my job and the court has done its job and I think Kenya has won. It has seen what the court process can do," Oraro said.
Unlike after the 2007 election, which degenerated into tribe-on-tribe violence that killed more than 1,000 people and displaced more than 500,000 villagers, this time Odinga said he had faith in the judiciary's ability to give him a fair hearing. Odinga, who said he would respect the court's decision whether it favored him or not, was set to address reporters in Nairobi later on Saturday.
The court's ruling ended days of anxiety since March 9, when Kenyatta was declared the winner of the March 4 vote that many described as the most complex in Kenya's history. More than 12 million Kenyans participated in the election. Some observers had expected a low registration of voters because of apathy following the 2007-08 violence, but campaigns by Kenyatta, Odinga and other presidential candidates led to the highest registration in the country ever. Kenya's electoral commission registered 14.3 million people.
Election day, though, did not go as planned. An electronic voter ID system intended to prevent fraud failed for reasons yet to be explained by the electoral commission. Vote officials instead used manual voter rolls.
After the polls closed, results were to be sent electronically to Nairobi, where officials would quickly tabulate a preliminary vote count in order to maximize transparency after rigging accusations following the 2007 vote. But that system failed, too. Election officials have indicated that computer servers were overloaded but have yet to fully explain the problem.
As the early count system was still being used, election results showed more than 330,000 rejected ballots, an unusually high number. But after the count resumed with the arrival in Nairobi of manual tallies, the number of rejected ballots was greatly reduced, and the election commission said the computer was mistakenly multiplying the number of rejected ballots by a factor of eight.
Odinga's lawyers told the Supreme Court this week that the switch from electronic voter identification to manual voter roll was contrived to allow inflation of Kenyatta's votes to take him past the 50 percent threshold. That accusation was vehemently denied by the electoral commission and Kenyatta's legal team.
http://news.yahoo.com/kenya-supreme-court-upholds-election-result-141537773.html
Kenya seeks African help to drop Hague charges against Kenyatta
Kenya seeks African help to drop Hague charges against Kenyatta
By Aaron Maasho and Richard Lough | Reuters
Fri, May 24, 2013
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Kenya has asked other African countries to urge the International Criminal Court (ICC) to drop crimes-against-humanity charges against its new president and his deputy, according to an African Union document seen on Thursday.
Uhuru Kenyatta became the second sitting African leader facing trial at the war-crimes tribunal when he won an election in March with an absolute majority in a ballot that saw huge voter turnout.
Many African nations signed up to the Rome Statute establishing the ICC, but a widespread feeling on the continent that it is targetted by the tribunal has left the court deeply unpopular with many.
South Sudan's President Salva Kiir said on Thursday his country would never become a member of the ICC, saying it appeared to be preoccupied with prosecuting African leaders.
The paper submitted to African foreign ministers at an African Union summit in Ethiopia said the ICC trials risked destabilising Kenya when it was undertaking deep reforms to avoid a repeat of the post-election violence five years ago that killed more than 1,200 people.
Kenyatta and his deputy, William Ruto, are accused of masterminding the ethnic bloodshed - charges both deny.
"We request the countries of the African Union and all friendly nations to ... urge the ICC to terminate the case or refer it (to Kenya) in view of the changes to Kenya's judiciary and constitutional framework," said the paper seen by Reuters.
Kenyatta's trial is due to begin in July.
Ramtane Lamamra, AU commissioner for peace and security, said that while the continent wanted justice, there was a need to balance this with national reconciliation.
"We'll reach a solution that will be very close to the document submitted by the region and Kenya," Lamamra told Reuters. "The termination of the case before the court, that will be the best option ... which the parties are working on currently."
RESENTMENT
African foreign ministers will submit a proposal to be voted on by heads of state at the summit over the weekend. That, diplomats say, is typically a rubber-stamping exercise.
One foreign minister pointed to a new constitution implemented in Kenya in the wake of the 2007-8 ethnic fighting and a reformed judiciary as reasons to back the proposal.
"We should allow the Kenyan judiciary which is fiercely independent to adjudicate," said the minister who declined to be identified as the issue was still being debated. "I am confident they can deal with this."
Another foreign minister said some countries were calling for all African signatories to withdraw their ICC membership.
"But they won't carry the day," the minister, who also asked to remain anonymous, told Reuters.
http://news.yahoo.com/south-sudan-says-war-crimes-court-persecutes-africans-063043672.html
Kenya seeks African help to drop Hague charges against Kenyatta
By Aaron Maasho and Richard Lough | Reuters
Fri, May 24, 2013
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Kenya has asked other African countries to urge the International Criminal Court (ICC) to drop crimes-against-humanity charges against its new president and his deputy, according to an African Union document seen on Thursday.
Uhuru Kenyatta became the second sitting African leader facing trial at the war-crimes tribunal when he won an election in March with an absolute majority in a ballot that saw huge voter turnout.
Many African nations signed up to the Rome Statute establishing the ICC, but a widespread feeling on the continent that it is targetted by the tribunal has left the court deeply unpopular with many.
South Sudan's President Salva Kiir said on Thursday his country would never become a member of the ICC, saying it appeared to be preoccupied with prosecuting African leaders.
The paper submitted to African foreign ministers at an African Union summit in Ethiopia said the ICC trials risked destabilising Kenya when it was undertaking deep reforms to avoid a repeat of the post-election violence five years ago that killed more than 1,200 people.
Kenyatta and his deputy, William Ruto, are accused of masterminding the ethnic bloodshed - charges both deny.
"We request the countries of the African Union and all friendly nations to ... urge the ICC to terminate the case or refer it (to Kenya) in view of the changes to Kenya's judiciary and constitutional framework," said the paper seen by Reuters.
Kenyatta's trial is due to begin in July.
Ramtane Lamamra, AU commissioner for peace and security, said that while the continent wanted justice, there was a need to balance this with national reconciliation.
"We'll reach a solution that will be very close to the document submitted by the region and Kenya," Lamamra told Reuters. "The termination of the case before the court, that will be the best option ... which the parties are working on currently."
RESENTMENT
African foreign ministers will submit a proposal to be voted on by heads of state at the summit over the weekend. That, diplomats say, is typically a rubber-stamping exercise.
One foreign minister pointed to a new constitution implemented in Kenya in the wake of the 2007-8 ethnic fighting and a reformed judiciary as reasons to back the proposal.
"We should allow the Kenyan judiciary which is fiercely independent to adjudicate," said the minister who declined to be identified as the issue was still being debated. "I am confident they can deal with this."
Another foreign minister said some countries were calling for all African signatories to withdraw their ICC membership.
"But they won't carry the day," the minister, who also asked to remain anonymous, told Reuters.
http://news.yahoo.com/south-sudan-says-war-crimes-court-persecutes-africans-063043672.html
UK announces payments to mistreated Kenyans
By GREGORY KATZ and JASON STRAZIUSO | Associated Press – 25 mins ago
LONDON (AP) — The British government Thursday announced compensation for Kenyans abused during a rebellion against colonial rule in the 1950s.
Foreign Secretary William Hague told the House of Commons more than 5,200 Kenyans will be compensated in a package worth nearly 20 million pounds ($31 million).
Hague said the government recognizes that Kenyans were subject to torture and other ill treatment that the "British government sincerely regrets." He said the British government understands the pain felt by Kenyans who were involved.
Several thousand now-elderly Kenyans say they were beaten and sexually assaulted by officers acting for the British administration trying to suppress the "Mau Mau" rebellion, during which groups of Kenyans attacked British officials and white farmers who had settled in some of Kenya's most fertile lands.
The settlements follow a ruling by Britain's High Court in October that three Kenyans could pursue compensation claims.
Martyn Day, a lawyer for the Kenyans, said he hopes Hague's statement will be "the final resolution of this legal battle that has been ongoing for so many years."
"The elderly victims of torture now at last have the recognition and justice they have sought for many years," Day added. "For them the significance of this moment cannot be overemphasized."
In Kenya, where there was a simultaneous announcement of the settlement, Nathan Kamothu — arrested in 1952 — said he was "very happy because we've succeeded."
He said there had been "a lot of trouble and torture brought to us by the colonial masters."
One older man grabbed a microphone and started singing as people waited for the official announcement in Nairobi. There were several dozen elderly Kenyans in attendance.
Francis Mutisi, assistant secretary general of the Mau Mau War Veterans Association, said the settlement has brought total jubilation.
"We are so happy today because the truth will be told worldwide," said Mutisi, 72, who was arrested while looking for a job and detained three weeks by the colonial government in Kenya.
http://news.yahoo.com/uk-announces-payments-mistreated-kenyans-113524488.html
UK announces payments to mistreated Kenyans
By GREGORY KATZ and JASON STRAZIUSO | Associated Press – 25 mins ago
LONDON (AP) — The British government Thursday announced compensation for Kenyans abused during a rebellion against colonial rule in the 1950s.
Foreign Secretary William Hague told the House of Commons more than 5,200 Kenyans will be compensated in a package worth nearly 20 million pounds ($31 million).
Hague said the government recognizes that Kenyans were subject to torture and other ill treatment that the "British government sincerely regrets." He said the British government understands the pain felt by Kenyans who were involved.
Several thousand now-elderly Kenyans say they were beaten and sexually assaulted by officers acting for the British administration trying to suppress the "Mau Mau" rebellion, during which groups of Kenyans attacked British officials and white farmers who had settled in some of Kenya's most fertile lands.
The settlements follow a ruling by Britain's High Court in October that three Kenyans could pursue compensation claims.
Martyn Day, a lawyer for the Kenyans, said he hopes Hague's statement will be "the final resolution of this legal battle that has been ongoing for so many years."
"The elderly victims of torture now at last have the recognition and justice they have sought for many years," Day added. "For them the significance of this moment cannot be overemphasized."
In Kenya, where there was a simultaneous announcement of the settlement, Nathan Kamothu — arrested in 1952 — said he was "very happy because we've succeeded."
He said there had been "a lot of trouble and torture brought to us by the colonial masters."
One older man grabbed a microphone and started singing as people waited for the official announcement in Nairobi. There were several dozen elderly Kenyans in attendance.
Francis Mutisi, assistant secretary general of the Mau Mau War Veterans Association, said the settlement has brought total jubilation.
"We are so happy today because the truth will be told worldwide," said Mutisi, 72, who was arrested while looking for a job and detained three weeks by the colonial government in Kenya.
http://news.yahoo.com/uk-announces-payments-mistreated-kenyans-113524488.html
39 dead in Kenya mall attack; hostages still held
39 dead in Kenya mall attack; hostages still held
By JASON STRAZIUSO | Associated Press
1 hr 2 mins ago
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Terrified shoppers huddled in back hallways and prayed they would not be found by the Islamic extremist gunmen lobbing grenades and firing assault rifles inside Nairobi's top mall Saturday. When the coast was thought to be clear, crying mothers clutching small children and blood-splattered men sprinted out of the four-story mall.
At least 39 people were killed and more than 150 wounded in the assault, Kenya's president announced on national TV, while disclosing that his close family members were among the dead.
Foreigners were among the casualties. France's president said that two French women were killed, and there were reports of American citizens injured, but the U.S. State Department said it had no further details.
Early Sunday morning, 12 hours after the attack began, gunmen remained holed up inside the mall with an unknown number of hostages. President Uhuru Kenyatta called the security operation under way "delicate" and said a top priority was to safeguard hostages.
As the attack unfolded shortly after noon Saturday, the al-Qaida-linked gunmen asked the victims they had cornered if they were Muslim: If the answer was yes, several witnesses said, those people were free to go. The non-Muslims were not.
Somalia's Islamic extremist group al-Shabab claimed responsibility and said the attack was retribution for Kenyan forces' 2011 push into Somalia. The rebels threatened more attacks.
Al-Shabab said on its Twitter feed that Kenyan security officials were trying to open negotiations. "There will be no negotiations whatsoever," al-Shabab tweeted.
As night fell in Kenya's capital, two contingents of army special forces troops moved inside the mall.
Police and military surrounded the huge shopping complex as helicopters buzzed overhead. An Associated Press reporter said he saw a wounded Kenyan soldier put into an ambulance at nightfall, an indication, perhaps, of a continuing shoot-out inside.
Witnesses said at least five gunmen — including at least one woman — first attacked an outdoor cafe at Nairobi's Westgate Mall, a shiny, new shopping center that hosts Nike, Adidas and Bose stores. The mall's ownership is Israeli, and security experts have long said the structure made an attractive terrorist target.
The attack began shortly after noon with bursts of gunfire and grenades. Shoppers — expatriates and rich Kenyans — fled in any direction that might be safe: into back corners of stores, back service hallways and bank vaults. Over the next several hours, pockets of people poured out of the mall as undercover police moved in. Some of the wounded were moved out in shopping carts.
"We started by hearing gunshots downstairs and outside. Later we heard them come inside. We took cover. Then we saw two gunmen wearing black turbans. I saw them shoot," said Patrick Kuria, an employee at Artcaffe, the restaurant with shady outdoor seating.
Frank Mugungu, an off-duty army sergeant major, said he saw four male attackers and one female attacker. "One was Somali," he said, but the others were black, suggesting that they could have been Kenyan or another nationality.
Al-Shabab, on its Twitter feed, said that it has many times warned Kenya's government that failure to remove its forces from Somalia "would have severe consequences." The group claimed that its gunmen had killed 100 people, but its assertions are often exaggerated.
"The attack at #WestgateMall is just a very tiny fraction of what Muslims in Somalia experience at the hands of Kenyan invaders," al-Shabab said. Another tweet said: "For long we have waged war against the Kenyans in our land, now it's time to shift the battleground and take the war to their land #Westgate."
Al-Shabab threatened in late 2011 to unleash a large-scale attack in Nairobi. Kenya has seen a regular spate of grenade attacks since then but never such a large terrorist assault.
Nairobi's mortuary superintendent, Sammy Nyongesa Jacob, said Africans, Asians and Caucasians were among the bodies brought to the mortuary.
The U.S. State Department condemned "this senseless act of violence that has resulted in death and injury for many innocent men, women, and children."
The U.S. embassy said it was in contact with local authorities and offered assistance. Some British security personnel assisted in the response.
The gunmen told hostages that non-Muslims would be targeted, said Elijah Kamau, who was at the mall at the time of the midday attack.
"The gunmen told Muslims to stand up and leave. They were safe, and non-Muslims would be targeted," he said.
Jay Patel, who sought cover on an upper floor in the mall when shooting began, said that when he looked out of a window onto the upper parking deck of the mall he saw the gunmen with a group of people. Patel said that as the attackers were talking, some of the people stood up and left and the others were shot.
The attack was carried out by terrorists, said police chief Benson Kibue. He did not specify a group. He said it was likely that no more than 10 attackers were involved.
Somalia's president — the leader of a country familiar with terrorist attacks — said his country knows "only too well the human costs of violence like this" as he extended prayers to those in Kenya.
"These heartless acts against defenseless civilians, including innocent children, are beyond the pale and cannot be tolerated. We stand shoulder to shoulder with Kenya in its time of grief for these lives lost and the many injured," President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said.
The gunmen carried AK-47s and wore vests with hand grenades on them, said Manish Turohit, 18, who hid in a parking garage for two hours.
"They just came in and threw a grenade. We were running and they opened fire. They were shouting and firing," he said after marching out of the mall in a line of 15 people who all held their hands in the air.
A local hospital was overwhelmed with the number of wounded being brought in hours after the attack, so they had to divert them to a second facility. Dozens of people were wounded. Officials said Kenyans turned out in droves to donate blood.
The United Nations secretary-general's office said that Ban Ki-moon has spoken with President Uhuru Kenyatta and expressed his concern. British Prime Minister David Cameron also called Kenyatta and offered assistance.
Kenyan authorities said they have thwarted other large-scale attacks targeting public spaces. Kenyan police said in September 2012 they disrupted a major terrorist attack in its final stages of planning, arresting two people with explosive devices and a cache of weapons and ammunition.
Anti-terror Police Unit boss Boniface Mwaniki said vests found were similar to those used in attacks that killed 76 people in Uganda who gathered to watch the soccer World Cup finals on TV in July 2010. Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for those bombings, saying the attack was in retaliation for Uganda's participation in the African Union's peacekeeping mission in Somalia.
http://news.yahoo.com/39-dead-kenya-mall-attack-hostages-still-held-212623649.html
39 dead in Kenya mall attack; hostages still held
By JASON STRAZIUSO | Associated Press
1 hr 2 mins ago
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Terrified shoppers huddled in back hallways and prayed they would not be found by the Islamic extremist gunmen lobbing grenades and firing assault rifles inside Nairobi's top mall Saturday. When the coast was thought to be clear, crying mothers clutching small children and blood-splattered men sprinted out of the four-story mall.
At least 39 people were killed and more than 150 wounded in the assault, Kenya's president announced on national TV, while disclosing that his close family members were among the dead.
Foreigners were among the casualties. France's president said that two French women were killed, and there were reports of American citizens injured, but the U.S. State Department said it had no further details.
Early Sunday morning, 12 hours after the attack began, gunmen remained holed up inside the mall with an unknown number of hostages. President Uhuru Kenyatta called the security operation under way "delicate" and said a top priority was to safeguard hostages.
As the attack unfolded shortly after noon Saturday, the al-Qaida-linked gunmen asked the victims they had cornered if they were Muslim: If the answer was yes, several witnesses said, those people were free to go. The non-Muslims were not.
Somalia's Islamic extremist group al-Shabab claimed responsibility and said the attack was retribution for Kenyan forces' 2011 push into Somalia. The rebels threatened more attacks.
Al-Shabab said on its Twitter feed that Kenyan security officials were trying to open negotiations. "There will be no negotiations whatsoever," al-Shabab tweeted.
As night fell in Kenya's capital, two contingents of army special forces troops moved inside the mall.
Police and military surrounded the huge shopping complex as helicopters buzzed overhead. An Associated Press reporter said he saw a wounded Kenyan soldier put into an ambulance at nightfall, an indication, perhaps, of a continuing shoot-out inside.
Witnesses said at least five gunmen — including at least one woman — first attacked an outdoor cafe at Nairobi's Westgate Mall, a shiny, new shopping center that hosts Nike, Adidas and Bose stores. The mall's ownership is Israeli, and security experts have long said the structure made an attractive terrorist target.
The attack began shortly after noon with bursts of gunfire and grenades. Shoppers — expatriates and rich Kenyans — fled in any direction that might be safe: into back corners of stores, back service hallways and bank vaults. Over the next several hours, pockets of people poured out of the mall as undercover police moved in. Some of the wounded were moved out in shopping carts.
"We started by hearing gunshots downstairs and outside. Later we heard them come inside. We took cover. Then we saw two gunmen wearing black turbans. I saw them shoot," said Patrick Kuria, an employee at Artcaffe, the restaurant with shady outdoor seating.
Frank Mugungu, an off-duty army sergeant major, said he saw four male attackers and one female attacker. "One was Somali," he said, but the others were black, suggesting that they could have been Kenyan or another nationality.
Al-Shabab, on its Twitter feed, said that it has many times warned Kenya's government that failure to remove its forces from Somalia "would have severe consequences." The group claimed that its gunmen had killed 100 people, but its assertions are often exaggerated.
"The attack at #WestgateMall is just a very tiny fraction of what Muslims in Somalia experience at the hands of Kenyan invaders," al-Shabab said. Another tweet said: "For long we have waged war against the Kenyans in our land, now it's time to shift the battleground and take the war to their land #Westgate."
Al-Shabab threatened in late 2011 to unleash a large-scale attack in Nairobi. Kenya has seen a regular spate of grenade attacks since then but never such a large terrorist assault.
Nairobi's mortuary superintendent, Sammy Nyongesa Jacob, said Africans, Asians and Caucasians were among the bodies brought to the mortuary.
The U.S. State Department condemned "this senseless act of violence that has resulted in death and injury for many innocent men, women, and children."
The U.S. embassy said it was in contact with local authorities and offered assistance. Some British security personnel assisted in the response.
The gunmen told hostages that non-Muslims would be targeted, said Elijah Kamau, who was at the mall at the time of the midday attack.
"The gunmen told Muslims to stand up and leave. They were safe, and non-Muslims would be targeted," he said.
Jay Patel, who sought cover on an upper floor in the mall when shooting began, said that when he looked out of a window onto the upper parking deck of the mall he saw the gunmen with a group of people. Patel said that as the attackers were talking, some of the people stood up and left and the others were shot.
The attack was carried out by terrorists, said police chief Benson Kibue. He did not specify a group. He said it was likely that no more than 10 attackers were involved.
Somalia's president — the leader of a country familiar with terrorist attacks — said his country knows "only too well the human costs of violence like this" as he extended prayers to those in Kenya.
"These heartless acts against defenseless civilians, including innocent children, are beyond the pale and cannot be tolerated. We stand shoulder to shoulder with Kenya in its time of grief for these lives lost and the many injured," President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said.
The gunmen carried AK-47s and wore vests with hand grenades on them, said Manish Turohit, 18, who hid in a parking garage for two hours.
"They just came in and threw a grenade. We were running and they opened fire. They were shouting and firing," he said after marching out of the mall in a line of 15 people who all held their hands in the air.
A local hospital was overwhelmed with the number of wounded being brought in hours after the attack, so they had to divert them to a second facility. Dozens of people were wounded. Officials said Kenyans turned out in droves to donate blood.
The United Nations secretary-general's office said that Ban Ki-moon has spoken with President Uhuru Kenyatta and expressed his concern. British Prime Minister David Cameron also called Kenyatta and offered assistance.
Kenyan authorities said they have thwarted other large-scale attacks targeting public spaces. Kenyan police said in September 2012 they disrupted a major terrorist attack in its final stages of planning, arresting two people with explosive devices and a cache of weapons and ammunition.
Anti-terror Police Unit boss Boniface Mwaniki said vests found were similar to those used in attacks that killed 76 people in Uganda who gathered to watch the soccer World Cup finals on TV in July 2010. Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for those bombings, saying the attack was in retaliation for Uganda's participation in the African Union's peacekeeping mission in Somalia.
http://news.yahoo.com/39-dead-kenya-mall-attack-hostages-still-held-212623649.html
Smoke pours from Kenya mall as forces 'close in'
Smoke pours from Kenya mall as forces 'close in'
By Matthew Mpoke Bigg and James Macharia | Reuters
36 mins ago
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Thick smoke poured from the besieged Nairobi mall where Kenyan officials said their forces were closing in on Islamists holding hostages on Monday, three days after a raid by Somalia's al Shabaab killed at least 62 people.
It remained unclear how many gunmen and hostages were still cornered in the Westgate shopping center, two hours after a series of loud explosions and gunfire were followed by a plume of black smoke, that grew in volume from one part of the complex.
Kenya's interior minister told a news conference that the militants - all men, though some wore women's clothing during the assault - had set a fire with mattresses in a supermarket on the mall's lower floors. Two "terrorists" had been killed on Monday, he added. Another assailant had died on Saturday.
The gunmen came from "all over the world", Kenya's military chief said, adding: "We are fighting global terrorism here."
Security officials near the scene had said the blasts heard at lunchtime were caused by Kenyan forces blasting away in after President Uhuru Kenyatta had on Sunday dismissed a demand that he pull Kenyan forces out of neighboring Somalia.
But Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku said he had no information on any explosions and a military spokesman, asked whether the militants had set off charges, declined comment.
Al Shabaab warned it would kill hostages if police moved in.
Echoing other officials, who have been at pains to highlight successes in rescuing hundreds of people trapped and terrified after Saturday's massacre, Lenku said most of the complex was under the authorities' control and escape was impossible.
A senior police officer said the authorities, who have been receiving advice from Western and Israeli experts, were "closing in". Lenku said: "We are doing anything reasonably possible, cautiously though, to bring this process to an end.
"The terrorists could be running and hiding in some stores, but all floors now are under our control."
AFRICAN QAEDA CONCERN
He acknowledged "support" from foreign governments but said Kenyan forces were managing without it so far. Western powers have been alarmed by a spread of al Qaeda-linked violence across Africa, from Nigeria and Mali in the west, though Algeria and Libya in the north to Somalia and now Kenya in the east.
Nairobi saw one of the first major attacks by al Qaeda, when it killed more than 200 people with a bomb at the U.S. embassy. And while some analysts said the latest raid may show al Shabaab lashing out in its weakness after the successes of Kenyan troops in Somalia, the risk of further international violence remains.
Julius Karangi, chief of the Kenyan general staff, called the gunmen "a multinational collection". He said they had set the fire as a distraction but could now have no hope of evading capture: "If they wish, they can now surrender," he said.
"We have no intention whatsoever of going backwards."
On Sunday, President Kenyatta said 10 to 15 assailants were holding an unknown number of hostages in one location, apparently the supermarket. On Monday, it was not clear whether they may be more dispersed, including on the upper floors.
A spokesman for al Shabaab warned they would kill hostages if Kenyan security forces, who are being assisted by Western and Israeli experts, tried to storm their positions:
"Israelis and Kenyan forces have tried to enter Westgate by force but they could not," Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage said in an audio statement posted online. "The mujahideen will kill the hostages if the enemies use force."
On Twitter, the group posted: "They've obtained large amounts of ammunition and are, by the blessings of Allah alone, still firm and still dominating the show."
The Red Cross and Lenku put the death toll so far at 62. The Red Cross also said it had also recorded 63 people as missing.
Survivors' tales of the military-style assault by squads of attackers hurling grenades and spraying automatic fire have left little doubt the hostage-takers are willing to kill. Previous raids around the world, including at a desert gas plant in Algeria nine months ago, suggest they are also ready to die.
CINEMA
Kenyatta, who lost one of his own nephews in Saturday's lunchtime bloodbath, said he would not relent in a "war on terror" in Somalia, where Kenyan troops have pushed al Shabaab onto the defensive over the past two years as part of an African Union-backed peacekeeping mission across the northern border.
It remains unclear who the assailants are. Al Shabaab - the name means "The Lads" in Arabic - has thousands of Somali fighters but has also attracted foreigners to fight Western and African Union efforts to establish a stable government.
A London man, Jermaine Grant, faces trial in Kenya for possession of explosives. Police suspect an al Shabaab plot to attack restaurants and hotels used by Westerners and have been hunting for another Briton, Samantha Lewthwaite, the widow of a suicide bomber who took part in the London 7/7 attacks of 2005.
Some British newspapers speculated on the role the "White Widow" might have played at Westgate. The term "black widow" has been used by Chechen militants in Russia for women taking part in bombings and assaults after the deaths of their husbands.
Four Britons were killed and Prime Minister David Cameron said: "We should prepare ourselves for further bad news."
As well as Kenyans, foreigners including a French mother and daughter and two diplomats, from Canada and Ghana, were killed. Ghanaian Kofi Awoonor was a renowned poet. Other victims came from China and the Netherlands. Five Americans were wounded.
Kenya's president, son of post-colonial leader Jomo Kenyatta, is facing his first major security challenge since being elected in March. The crisis might have an impact on his troubles with the International Criminal Court at The Hague.
Judges there let his vice president, William Ruto, fly home for a week, suspending a trial on Monday in which Ruto is charged with crimes against humanity for allegedly coordinating violence after an election in 2007. Kenyatta is due to face trial on similar charges later this year.
WARFARE
Al Shabaab's siege underlined its ability to cause major disruptions with relatively limited resources, even after Kenyan and other African troops drove it from Somali cities.
"While the group has grown considerably weaker in terms of being able to wage a conventional war, it is now ever more capable of carrying out asymmetric warfare," said Abdi Aynte, director of Mogadishu's Heritage Institute of Policy Studies.
Others said divisions within the loose al Shabaab movement may have driven one faction to carry out the kind of high-profile attack that may help win new support.
Al Shabaab's last big attack abroad was a double bombing in Uganda that killed 77 people watching soccer on TV in 2010.
(Reporting by Edmund Blair, James Macharia, Duncan Miriri, Richard Lough, Drazen Jorgic, Humphrey Malalo, Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Kevin Mwanza in Nairobi, Pascal Fletcher in Johannesburg, Feisal Omar and Abdi Sheikh in Mogadishu, Roberta Rampton in Washington, Anthony Deutsch at The Hague, Myra MacDonald in Tbilisi and Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem; Writing by Edmund Blair and Alastair Macdonald)
http://news.yahoo.com/gunfire-heard-kenyan-mall-under-siege-68-killed-043104041.html
Smoke pours from Kenya mall as forces 'close in'
By Matthew Mpoke Bigg and James Macharia | Reuters
36 mins ago
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Thick smoke poured from the besieged Nairobi mall where Kenyan officials said their forces were closing in on Islamists holding hostages on Monday, three days after a raid by Somalia's al Shabaab killed at least 62 people.
It remained unclear how many gunmen and hostages were still cornered in the Westgate shopping center, two hours after a series of loud explosions and gunfire were followed by a plume of black smoke, that grew in volume from one part of the complex.
Kenya's interior minister told a news conference that the militants - all men, though some wore women's clothing during the assault - had set a fire with mattresses in a supermarket on the mall's lower floors. Two "terrorists" had been killed on Monday, he added. Another assailant had died on Saturday.
The gunmen came from "all over the world", Kenya's military chief said, adding: "We are fighting global terrorism here."
Security officials near the scene had said the blasts heard at lunchtime were caused by Kenyan forces blasting away in after President Uhuru Kenyatta had on Sunday dismissed a demand that he pull Kenyan forces out of neighboring Somalia.
But Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku said he had no information on any explosions and a military spokesman, asked whether the militants had set off charges, declined comment.
Al Shabaab warned it would kill hostages if police moved in.
Echoing other officials, who have been at pains to highlight successes in rescuing hundreds of people trapped and terrified after Saturday's massacre, Lenku said most of the complex was under the authorities' control and escape was impossible.
A senior police officer said the authorities, who have been receiving advice from Western and Israeli experts, were "closing in". Lenku said: "We are doing anything reasonably possible, cautiously though, to bring this process to an end.
"The terrorists could be running and hiding in some stores, but all floors now are under our control."
AFRICAN QAEDA CONCERN
He acknowledged "support" from foreign governments but said Kenyan forces were managing without it so far. Western powers have been alarmed by a spread of al Qaeda-linked violence across Africa, from Nigeria and Mali in the west, though Algeria and Libya in the north to Somalia and now Kenya in the east.
Nairobi saw one of the first major attacks by al Qaeda, when it killed more than 200 people with a bomb at the U.S. embassy. And while some analysts said the latest raid may show al Shabaab lashing out in its weakness after the successes of Kenyan troops in Somalia, the risk of further international violence remains.
Julius Karangi, chief of the Kenyan general staff, called the gunmen "a multinational collection". He said they had set the fire as a distraction but could now have no hope of evading capture: "If they wish, they can now surrender," he said.
"We have no intention whatsoever of going backwards."
On Sunday, President Kenyatta said 10 to 15 assailants were holding an unknown number of hostages in one location, apparently the supermarket. On Monday, it was not clear whether they may be more dispersed, including on the upper floors.
A spokesman for al Shabaab warned they would kill hostages if Kenyan security forces, who are being assisted by Western and Israeli experts, tried to storm their positions:
"Israelis and Kenyan forces have tried to enter Westgate by force but they could not," Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage said in an audio statement posted online. "The mujahideen will kill the hostages if the enemies use force."
On Twitter, the group posted: "They've obtained large amounts of ammunition and are, by the blessings of Allah alone, still firm and still dominating the show."
The Red Cross and Lenku put the death toll so far at 62. The Red Cross also said it had also recorded 63 people as missing.
Survivors' tales of the military-style assault by squads of attackers hurling grenades and spraying automatic fire have left little doubt the hostage-takers are willing to kill. Previous raids around the world, including at a desert gas plant in Algeria nine months ago, suggest they are also ready to die.
CINEMA
Kenyatta, who lost one of his own nephews in Saturday's lunchtime bloodbath, said he would not relent in a "war on terror" in Somalia, where Kenyan troops have pushed al Shabaab onto the defensive over the past two years as part of an African Union-backed peacekeeping mission across the northern border.
It remains unclear who the assailants are. Al Shabaab - the name means "The Lads" in Arabic - has thousands of Somali fighters but has also attracted foreigners to fight Western and African Union efforts to establish a stable government.
A London man, Jermaine Grant, faces trial in Kenya for possession of explosives. Police suspect an al Shabaab plot to attack restaurants and hotels used by Westerners and have been hunting for another Briton, Samantha Lewthwaite, the widow of a suicide bomber who took part in the London 7/7 attacks of 2005.
Some British newspapers speculated on the role the "White Widow" might have played at Westgate. The term "black widow" has been used by Chechen militants in Russia for women taking part in bombings and assaults after the deaths of their husbands.
Four Britons were killed and Prime Minister David Cameron said: "We should prepare ourselves for further bad news."
As well as Kenyans, foreigners including a French mother and daughter and two diplomats, from Canada and Ghana, were killed. Ghanaian Kofi Awoonor was a renowned poet. Other victims came from China and the Netherlands. Five Americans were wounded.
Kenya's president, son of post-colonial leader Jomo Kenyatta, is facing his first major security challenge since being elected in March. The crisis might have an impact on his troubles with the International Criminal Court at The Hague.
Judges there let his vice president, William Ruto, fly home for a week, suspending a trial on Monday in which Ruto is charged with crimes against humanity for allegedly coordinating violence after an election in 2007. Kenyatta is due to face trial on similar charges later this year.
WARFARE
Al Shabaab's siege underlined its ability to cause major disruptions with relatively limited resources, even after Kenyan and other African troops drove it from Somali cities.
"While the group has grown considerably weaker in terms of being able to wage a conventional war, it is now ever more capable of carrying out asymmetric warfare," said Abdi Aynte, director of Mogadishu's Heritage Institute of Policy Studies.
Others said divisions within the loose al Shabaab movement may have driven one faction to carry out the kind of high-profile attack that may help win new support.
Al Shabaab's last big attack abroad was a double bombing in Uganda that killed 77 people watching soccer on TV in 2010.
(Reporting by Edmund Blair, James Macharia, Duncan Miriri, Richard Lough, Drazen Jorgic, Humphrey Malalo, Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Kevin Mwanza in Nairobi, Pascal Fletcher in Johannesburg, Feisal Omar and Abdi Sheikh in Mogadishu, Roberta Rampton in Washington, Anthony Deutsch at The Hague, Myra MacDonald in Tbilisi and Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem; Writing by Edmund Blair and Alastair Macdonald)
http://news.yahoo.com/gunfire-heard-kenyan-mall-under-siege-68-killed-043104041.html
Re: Part II: It's More Than a Tree Planting Movement
Kenya says it’s captured 11 of alleged
al Shabab shopping mall terrorists
Kenyan security forces are seen outside the Westgate Mall in Nairobi | Sayyid Azim/AP
NAIROBI, Kenya — With speculation rampant about the nationalities of the gunmen who seized control of a Nairobi shopping mall Saturday and executed scores of shoppers, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta declared Tuesday that the bloody siege was finally over, with five terrorists killed and 11 suspects taken prisoner.
The Kenyan leader announced that 61 civilians and six soldiers had died during the brazen terrorist attack, the deadliest in the country in 15 years.
The death toll was expected to rise, however; Kenyatta said investigators must now pick through the debris of the Westgate shopping complex – three of its floors collapsed – where more bodies are expected to be found. Dozens of people thought to have been in the mall when the attack began are still unaccounted for. At least 240 people were injured.
“The terrorists and civilians are trapped in the debris,” Kenyatta said. “These cowards will meet justice, as will their accomplices and patrons, wherever they are.”
The capture of 11 of the suspected attackers should go a long way toward helping authorities learn their identities. Al Qaida’s affiliate in Somalia, al Shabab, has claimed responsibility for the attack, calling it retribution for Kenya’s invasion of Somalia in an effort to crush al Shabab.
But rumors have been flying since Sunday that at least some of the Nairobi assailants grew up outside Somalia, including in the United States – something of paramount interest to officials in countries that have taken in hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees in the past two decades.
At least 20 men have left Minnesota alone since 2007 to join al Shabab, in what the FBI calls one of the largest recruitment drives in U.S. history by a foreign terrorist group.
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said this week that “at least 40 to 50 Somali-Americans” had gone to Somalia to be trained.
Others doubt the authenticity of the reports of Westernized attackers, which originated at a time the Kenyan government couldn’t give the exact number of assailants waging terror in the mall.
“Suggestions that British and American nationals were part of the Westgate attackers are to be treated with caution,” Valentina Soria, a security analyst at the defense consultancy IHS Jane’s, said in an emailed statement.
“It is surprising that Kenyan authorities were able to provide rather detailed information on some of the attackers so early in the investigation,” Soria said.
The attack drew substantial attention from U.S. and other intelligence agencies, reports indicate. The command center for the Westgate operations was swarmed with a host of American military officials assisting the Kenyan operation, according to two people who visited the center. They agreed to speak only on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk to a reporter. Israel is thought to have provided advice on the counterterrorism operations; the Westgate complex is Israeli-owned.
The scale of death was especially shocking because, unlike most terrorist attacks with such high casualties, no major explosive was used. The attackers exacted their death through gunfire and grenades, killing swiftly and efficiently.
Kenyatta, whose nephew and nephew’s fiancee died in the attack, declared three days of national mourning in memory of the dead.
His speech marked an end to the bloody, drawn-out ordeal after much confusion about what was taking place. On Monday evening, the Twitter accounts of Kenya’s Interior Ministry and Defense Forces, as well as some local news outlets, declared that the mall had been fully secured. On Tuesday, however, more gunshots could be heard from the mall, where smoke still spewed from Monday’s fire.
Analysts speculated that the attack might mark al Shabab’s transition from a movement founded primarily to take down a Western-backed government it viewed as a puppet of the despised neighboring Ethiopians to an international terrorist movement set on carrying its violence around the world.
That change was presaged last year when Ahmed Abdi Godane, an al Shabab leader, declared loyalty to al Qaida. This year, Godane emerged on top of the Somali organization after a brutal power struggle that saw several rivals either killed or go into hiding.
If that’s true, it would place al Shabab with al Qaida’s Yemen affiliate, al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, as among al Qaida’s most dangerous branches.
Whether that means the group is stronger or weaker is hotly debated.
Ken Menkhaus, a Somali expert who’s teaching at North Carolina’s Davidson College, recently said that after losing territory and popular support in Somalia, the group was lashing out like a wounded animal backed into a corner. Writing for Think Progress, a blog published by the Center for American Progress, a research center in Washington, Menkhaus called the Nairobi attack an “act of desperation” intended to “provoke a violent backlash against ethnic Somalis by the Kenyan government.”
Cedric Barnes of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, which tracks conflicts around the world, said the opposite was true.
The attack signifies that Godane and his global jihad theories have cemented control over the organization, he said.
“Al Shabab is under pressure, but to say that this is a last act of desperation is to misunderstand what Godane has always been,” Barnes said.
Rashid Abdi, a prominent Nairobi-based Somali analyst, is even more pessimistic, saying that a new diaspora-led group has been allowed to form a direct connection to al Qaida within al Shabab-controlled areas of Somalia.
“This is a new game, and a new outfit,” Abdi said. “This was definitely a broader operation and very sophisticated.”
Abdi pointed in part to the al Shabab spokesman for the attack, Abu Omar, who speaks in an impeccable British accent. “This is an extremely sophisticated person who was raised in the West and knew what he was talking about,” Abdi said.
How many of the assailants, if any, grew up in the United States and Europe is a question whose answer may help determine whether that theory is true.
Boswell is a McClatchy special correspondent. Email: aboswell@mcclatchydc.com; Twitter: @alanboswell
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/09/24/203115/kenya-says-its-captured-11-of.html#storylink=cpy
Kenya says it’s captured 11 of alleged
al Shabab shopping mall terrorists
Kenyan security forces are seen outside the Westgate Mall in Nairobi | Sayyid Azim/AP
NAIROBI, Kenya — With speculation rampant about the nationalities of the gunmen who seized control of a Nairobi shopping mall Saturday and executed scores of shoppers, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta declared Tuesday that the bloody siege was finally over, with five terrorists killed and 11 suspects taken prisoner.
The Kenyan leader announced that 61 civilians and six soldiers had died during the brazen terrorist attack, the deadliest in the country in 15 years.
The death toll was expected to rise, however; Kenyatta said investigators must now pick through the debris of the Westgate shopping complex – three of its floors collapsed – where more bodies are expected to be found. Dozens of people thought to have been in the mall when the attack began are still unaccounted for. At least 240 people were injured.
“The terrorists and civilians are trapped in the debris,” Kenyatta said. “These cowards will meet justice, as will their accomplices and patrons, wherever they are.”
The capture of 11 of the suspected attackers should go a long way toward helping authorities learn their identities. Al Qaida’s affiliate in Somalia, al Shabab, has claimed responsibility for the attack, calling it retribution for Kenya’s invasion of Somalia in an effort to crush al Shabab.
But rumors have been flying since Sunday that at least some of the Nairobi assailants grew up outside Somalia, including in the United States – something of paramount interest to officials in countries that have taken in hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees in the past two decades.
At least 20 men have left Minnesota alone since 2007 to join al Shabab, in what the FBI calls one of the largest recruitment drives in U.S. history by a foreign terrorist group.
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said this week that “at least 40 to 50 Somali-Americans” had gone to Somalia to be trained.
Others doubt the authenticity of the reports of Westernized attackers, which originated at a time the Kenyan government couldn’t give the exact number of assailants waging terror in the mall.
“Suggestions that British and American nationals were part of the Westgate attackers are to be treated with caution,” Valentina Soria, a security analyst at the defense consultancy IHS Jane’s, said in an emailed statement.
“It is surprising that Kenyan authorities were able to provide rather detailed information on some of the attackers so early in the investigation,” Soria said.
The attack drew substantial attention from U.S. and other intelligence agencies, reports indicate. The command center for the Westgate operations was swarmed with a host of American military officials assisting the Kenyan operation, according to two people who visited the center. They agreed to speak only on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk to a reporter. Israel is thought to have provided advice on the counterterrorism operations; the Westgate complex is Israeli-owned.
The scale of death was especially shocking because, unlike most terrorist attacks with such high casualties, no major explosive was used. The attackers exacted their death through gunfire and grenades, killing swiftly and efficiently.
Kenyatta, whose nephew and nephew’s fiancee died in the attack, declared three days of national mourning in memory of the dead.
His speech marked an end to the bloody, drawn-out ordeal after much confusion about what was taking place. On Monday evening, the Twitter accounts of Kenya’s Interior Ministry and Defense Forces, as well as some local news outlets, declared that the mall had been fully secured. On Tuesday, however, more gunshots could be heard from the mall, where smoke still spewed from Monday’s fire.
Analysts speculated that the attack might mark al Shabab’s transition from a movement founded primarily to take down a Western-backed government it viewed as a puppet of the despised neighboring Ethiopians to an international terrorist movement set on carrying its violence around the world.
That change was presaged last year when Ahmed Abdi Godane, an al Shabab leader, declared loyalty to al Qaida. This year, Godane emerged on top of the Somali organization after a brutal power struggle that saw several rivals either killed or go into hiding.
If that’s true, it would place al Shabab with al Qaida’s Yemen affiliate, al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, as among al Qaida’s most dangerous branches.
Whether that means the group is stronger or weaker is hotly debated.
Ken Menkhaus, a Somali expert who’s teaching at North Carolina’s Davidson College, recently said that after losing territory and popular support in Somalia, the group was lashing out like a wounded animal backed into a corner. Writing for Think Progress, a blog published by the Center for American Progress, a research center in Washington, Menkhaus called the Nairobi attack an “act of desperation” intended to “provoke a violent backlash against ethnic Somalis by the Kenyan government.”
Cedric Barnes of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, which tracks conflicts around the world, said the opposite was true.
The attack signifies that Godane and his global jihad theories have cemented control over the organization, he said.
“Al Shabab is under pressure, but to say that this is a last act of desperation is to misunderstand what Godane has always been,” Barnes said.
Rashid Abdi, a prominent Nairobi-based Somali analyst, is even more pessimistic, saying that a new diaspora-led group has been allowed to form a direct connection to al Qaida within al Shabab-controlled areas of Somalia.
“This is a new game, and a new outfit,” Abdi said. “This was definitely a broader operation and very sophisticated.”
Abdi pointed in part to the al Shabab spokesman for the attack, Abu Omar, who speaks in an impeccable British accent. “This is an extremely sophisticated person who was raised in the West and knew what he was talking about,” Abdi said.
How many of the assailants, if any, grew up in the United States and Europe is a question whose answer may help determine whether that theory is true.
Boswell is a McClatchy special correspondent. Email: aboswell@mcclatchydc.com; Twitter: @alanboswell
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/09/24/203115/kenya-says-its-captured-11-of.html#storylink=cpy
The Afterlife Of A T-Shirt
The Afterlife Of A T-Shirt (19:07)
December 11, 2013 3:06 PM
Charities like Goodwill sell or give away some of the used clothes they get. But a lot of the clothes get sold, packed in bales and sent across the ocean in a container ship. The U.S. exports over a billion pounds of used clothing every year — and much of that winds up in used clothing markets in sub-Saharan Africa.
On today's show, we visit a giant used-clothing market in Nairobi, Kenya to see what happens to American clothes (including, presumably, some Planet Money T-shirts) after Americans are done with them.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/12/11/250240941/episode-502-the-afterlife-of-a-t-shirt
The Afterlife Of A T-Shirt (19:07)
December 11, 2013 3:06 PM
Charities like Goodwill sell or give away some of the used clothes they get. But a lot of the clothes get sold, packed in bales and sent across the ocean in a container ship. The U.S. exports over a billion pounds of used clothing every year — and much of that winds up in used clothing markets in sub-Saharan Africa.
On today's show, we visit a giant used-clothing market in Nairobi, Kenya to see what happens to American clothes (including, presumably, some Planet Money T-shirts) after Americans are done with them.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/12/11/250240941/episode-502-the-afterlife-of-a-t-shirt
Kenya mourns 148 dead in university attack by militants
Kenya mourns 148 dead in university attack by militants
Associated Press
By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA and TOM ODULA
1 hour ago
GARISSA, Kenya (AP) — The 20-year-old student called home from the university besieged by Islamic militants and frantically told her father, "There are gunshots everywhere! Tell Mum to pray for me — I don't know if I will survive."
The call by Elizabeth Namarome Musinai at dawn Thursday was one of several her family received as the attack and hostage drama unfolded at Garissa University College, where gunmen from the al-Shabab militant group killed 148 people.
Then, about 1 p.m., a man got on the line to demand that Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta be contacted within two minutes and told to remove troops from neighboring Somalia, where they are fighting al-Shabab extremists.
He phoned back promptly. When told the president had not been contacted, he said, "I am going to kill your daughter." Three gunshots followed, and he hung up. When Elizabeth's father, Fred Kaskon Musinai, called the man back, he said he was told: "She is now with her God."
Musinai said he is still hanging on to hope that Elizabeth somehow survived, although she is not on the list of wounded, which now numbers 104. He has traveled from his home in Kitale to Nairobi, where the dead are being brought to a morgue for families to identify and claim.
Survivors and relatives gave other harrowing accounts of the siege by Islamic extremists as Kenya on Friday mourned the victims of the attack, the deadliest since the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi that killed more than 200 people.
At the Nairobi morgue, screaming and crying family members were assisted by Red Cross staffers, who tried to console them.\
Archbishop John Njue, who conducted Good Friday services in the capital, cited the "murdered" students and said, "This is a tremendous challenge in our country."
Pope Francis condemned the attack as an act of "senseless brutality" and called for those responsible to change their violent ways. In a telegram of condolence, Francis also urged Kenyan authorities to work to bring an end to such attacks and "hasten the dawn of a new era of brotherhood, justice and peace."
The gunmen singled out Christians at the university, killing them on the spot. But Muslims also were among the dead, as were women, even though the attackers had said at one point that they, too, would be spared.
The masked attackers — strapped with explosives and armed with AK-47s — battled troops and police before the violence ended after about 13 hours.
In announcing an updated figure of 148 people killed by the gunmen, Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery said 142 of the dead were students, three were policemen and three were soldiers.
Police worked at the Garissa campus Friday, taking fingerprints from the bodies of the four slain gunmen and of the students and security officials who died, for identification purposes.
Security forces guarded the gates of the school. Its slogans on the wall outside said "Oasis of Innovation" and "A World Class University of Technological Processes and Development."
Elsewhere in Garissa, soldiers blocked a group of women that approached a military-controlled site where students were awaiting evacuation, prompting several women to collapse, shrieking, in the dust for several minutes. A bystander said the son of one of the women had died in the attack.
Survivor Helen Titus said one of the first things the al-Shabab gunmen did when they entered the campus was to head for a lecture hall where Christians were in prayer.
"They investigated our area. They knew everything," said Titus, a Christian, who was being treated in Garissa for a bullet wound to the wrist.
The 21-year-old English literature student told The Associated Press that she smeared blood from classmates on her face and hair and played dead at one point.
The gunmen also told students hiding in dormitories to come out, assuring them that they would not be killed, Titus said.
"We just wondered whether to come out or not," she said. Many students did, and the gunmen shot them anyway.
Esther Wanjiru said she was awake at the time of the attack. Asked if she lost anyone, she said: "My best friend."
Another survivor, Nina Kozel, said she was awakened by screaming and that many students ran to the fences and jumped over them. Some suffered bruises, she said. Many were unable to escape and hid in vain under beds and in closets in their rooms, she added.
"They were shot there and then," she said, adding that the killers shouted "God is great" in Arabic.
Those who surrendered were either selected for killing, or freed in some cases, apparently because they were Muslim, she said.
A spokesman for the group, Ali Mohamud Rage, said it was responsible for the attack. Al-Shabab has struck several times in Kenya, including the siege at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi in 2013 that killed 67 people, to retaliate against Kenya for sending troops to Somalia in 2011 to fight the militants and stabilize the government in Mogadishu.
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud called for stronger collaboration between his country and Kenya to defeat al-Shabab.
The U.N. Security Council expressed outrage — a word it rarely uses — in condemning the attack. A statement approved by all 15 council members paid tribute to Kenya's role in fighting "terrorism" — especially its role in the African Union's mission in Somalia against al-Shabab.
The White House said President Barack Obama called Kenyatta to express condolences "for the lives lost during the heinous terrorist attack."
Obama, who is scheduled to visit Nairobi in July, "emphasized his support for the government and people of Kenya," according to a statement. It added that he and Kenyatta would discuss how to strengthen counterterrorism cooperation.
Some Kenyans were angry the Kenyan government didn't take sufficient security precautions. The attack came six days after Britain advised "against all but essential travel" to parts of Kenya, including Garissa.
A day before the attack, Kenyatta dismissed that warning as well as an Australian one pertaining to Nairobi and Mombasa, saying: "Kenya is safe as any country in the world. The travel advisories being issued by our friends are not genuine."
Previous travel warnings have hurt the country's tourism industry.
One man posted a photo on Twitter showing about 100 bodies lying face-down on a blood-smeared courtyard with the comment: "Our inaction is betrayal to these Garissa victims"
Babu Owino, the chairman of the Students Organization for Nairobi University, said the government's behavior shows it is not serious in fighting extremist attacks.
A small group of demonstrators walked down a main road in Garissa with signs that read "We are against the killing of innocent Kenyans!!!! We are tired!!" and "Enough is enough. No more killing!! We are with you, our fellow Kenyans."
"We feel very sorry for them and we condemn the attack," demonstrator Abdullahi Muktar said of the victims.
http://news.yahoo.com/kenya-attack-survivor-says-gunmen-had-scouted-campus-093746289.html
Kenya mourns 148 dead in university attack by militants
Associated Press
By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA and TOM ODULA
1 hour ago
GARISSA, Kenya (AP) — The 20-year-old student called home from the university besieged by Islamic militants and frantically told her father, "There are gunshots everywhere! Tell Mum to pray for me — I don't know if I will survive."
The call by Elizabeth Namarome Musinai at dawn Thursday was one of several her family received as the attack and hostage drama unfolded at Garissa University College, where gunmen from the al-Shabab militant group killed 148 people.
Then, about 1 p.m., a man got on the line to demand that Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta be contacted within two minutes and told to remove troops from neighboring Somalia, where they are fighting al-Shabab extremists.
He phoned back promptly. When told the president had not been contacted, he said, "I am going to kill your daughter." Three gunshots followed, and he hung up. When Elizabeth's father, Fred Kaskon Musinai, called the man back, he said he was told: "She is now with her God."
Musinai said he is still hanging on to hope that Elizabeth somehow survived, although she is not on the list of wounded, which now numbers 104. He has traveled from his home in Kitale to Nairobi, where the dead are being brought to a morgue for families to identify and claim.
Survivors and relatives gave other harrowing accounts of the siege by Islamic extremists as Kenya on Friday mourned the victims of the attack, the deadliest since the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi that killed more than 200 people.
At the Nairobi morgue, screaming and crying family members were assisted by Red Cross staffers, who tried to console them.\
Archbishop John Njue, who conducted Good Friday services in the capital, cited the "murdered" students and said, "This is a tremendous challenge in our country."
Pope Francis condemned the attack as an act of "senseless brutality" and called for those responsible to change their violent ways. In a telegram of condolence, Francis also urged Kenyan authorities to work to bring an end to such attacks and "hasten the dawn of a new era of brotherhood, justice and peace."
The gunmen singled out Christians at the university, killing them on the spot. But Muslims also were among the dead, as were women, even though the attackers had said at one point that they, too, would be spared.
The masked attackers — strapped with explosives and armed with AK-47s — battled troops and police before the violence ended after about 13 hours.
In announcing an updated figure of 148 people killed by the gunmen, Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery said 142 of the dead were students, three were policemen and three were soldiers.
Police worked at the Garissa campus Friday, taking fingerprints from the bodies of the four slain gunmen and of the students and security officials who died, for identification purposes.
Security forces guarded the gates of the school. Its slogans on the wall outside said "Oasis of Innovation" and "A World Class University of Technological Processes and Development."
Elsewhere in Garissa, soldiers blocked a group of women that approached a military-controlled site where students were awaiting evacuation, prompting several women to collapse, shrieking, in the dust for several minutes. A bystander said the son of one of the women had died in the attack.
Survivor Helen Titus said one of the first things the al-Shabab gunmen did when they entered the campus was to head for a lecture hall where Christians were in prayer.
"They investigated our area. They knew everything," said Titus, a Christian, who was being treated in Garissa for a bullet wound to the wrist.
The 21-year-old English literature student told The Associated Press that she smeared blood from classmates on her face and hair and played dead at one point.
The gunmen also told students hiding in dormitories to come out, assuring them that they would not be killed, Titus said.
"We just wondered whether to come out or not," she said. Many students did, and the gunmen shot them anyway.
Esther Wanjiru said she was awake at the time of the attack. Asked if she lost anyone, she said: "My best friend."
Another survivor, Nina Kozel, said she was awakened by screaming and that many students ran to the fences and jumped over them. Some suffered bruises, she said. Many were unable to escape and hid in vain under beds and in closets in their rooms, she added.
"They were shot there and then," she said, adding that the killers shouted "God is great" in Arabic.
Those who surrendered were either selected for killing, or freed in some cases, apparently because they were Muslim, she said.
A spokesman for the group, Ali Mohamud Rage, said it was responsible for the attack. Al-Shabab has struck several times in Kenya, including the siege at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi in 2013 that killed 67 people, to retaliate against Kenya for sending troops to Somalia in 2011 to fight the militants and stabilize the government in Mogadishu.
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud called for stronger collaboration between his country and Kenya to defeat al-Shabab.
The U.N. Security Council expressed outrage — a word it rarely uses — in condemning the attack. A statement approved by all 15 council members paid tribute to Kenya's role in fighting "terrorism" — especially its role in the African Union's mission in Somalia against al-Shabab.
The White House said President Barack Obama called Kenyatta to express condolences "for the lives lost during the heinous terrorist attack."
Obama, who is scheduled to visit Nairobi in July, "emphasized his support for the government and people of Kenya," according to a statement. It added that he and Kenyatta would discuss how to strengthen counterterrorism cooperation.
Some Kenyans were angry the Kenyan government didn't take sufficient security precautions. The attack came six days after Britain advised "against all but essential travel" to parts of Kenya, including Garissa.
A day before the attack, Kenyatta dismissed that warning as well as an Australian one pertaining to Nairobi and Mombasa, saying: "Kenya is safe as any country in the world. The travel advisories being issued by our friends are not genuine."
Previous travel warnings have hurt the country's tourism industry.
One man posted a photo on Twitter showing about 100 bodies lying face-down on a blood-smeared courtyard with the comment: "Our inaction is betrayal to these Garissa victims"
Babu Owino, the chairman of the Students Organization for Nairobi University, said the government's behavior shows it is not serious in fighting extremist attacks.
A small group of demonstrators walked down a main road in Garissa with signs that read "We are against the killing of innocent Kenyans!!!! We are tired!!" and "Enough is enough. No more killing!! We are with you, our fellow Kenyans."
"We feel very sorry for them and we condemn the attack," demonstrator Abdullahi Muktar said of the victims.
http://news.yahoo.com/kenya-attack-survivor-says-gunmen-had-scouted-campus-093746289.html
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