12 years on, country still haunted by deadly Westgate terror scars

It was a bright, carefree Saturday morning in the capital Nairobi, the kind children look forward to all week.

On a day like this exactly 12 years ago, on the rooftop of Nairobi’s Westgate Mall, dozens of excited youngsters had gathered for a cooking competition.

Laughter and shrieks of joy filled the rooftop parking area, a perfect escape from the rigors of school and a chance to spend time with family and friends in one of the city’s most fashionable spaces.

Unknown to anyone, however, an enemy was plotting something wicked on innocent young ones. And just before noon, that enemy showed up in the most vicious and senseless manner, and the hurly-burly and laughter were quickly shattered by gunfire.

A deadly security siege had just unfolded that would last for four straight days as gunfire rent the air, turning a supposedly busy and lively mall into a battleground, one of the deadliest and the first of its kind the country had ever witnessed.

And by the end of the four-day standoff, 67 people lay dead and more than 150 others injured. Kenyans, only following events on both local and international media numbed by the sheer horror.

Fast forward to today, and the massacre of the young innocent souls at the rooftop remains one of the grimmest chapters of the Westgate siege and a moment that still sends chills to the national memory twelve years later.

Distraught mothers who ran to the rooftop to rescue their children never made it out alive, they were shot at together with their young ones.

Armed Al-Shabaab militants, full of hate, stormed the mall, unleashing terror, spraying bullets and lobbing grenades with reckless abandon.

For President Uhuru Kenyatta, barely six months into office, this had become his first major security test of his presidency, seemingly pushing him to the edge.

In an emotional address to a grieving nation, he vowed: “Kenya will not bend to terror,” this even as he was just learning that his own nephew and his fiancée were among those killed in the siege.

A dozen years later, the haunting horror of images of survivors crawling to safety, security forces clashing over command, and plumes of smoke rising from the burning mall have refused to vanish from the minds of Kenyans, remaining deeply etched in the nation’s psyche.

“This was terrible. It shattered any illusion that terrorism was distant, a painful reminder that ordinary spaces like shopping malls, restaurants, schools among others can instantly turn into battlefields,” reflects Dr Luchetu Likaka, a political and security affairs analyst.

“This was one of Kenya’s darkest moments that shattered families, communities, and the nation at large. It’s a day we want to forget but we can’t,” observes Hussein Khalid, a leading rights activist affiliated with Vocal Africa.

A heartbreaking story unfolded of a survivor recounting shielding her children beneath a car in the parking lot for nearly five hours as bullets whizzed overhead. “I told them to stay silent, to not even breathe too loudly. We only prayed,” she told journalists.

As confusion over how many attackers were in the building, and who had already gone in to confront them and rescue those trapped became real, it took hours from the start of the attack for the elite police squads to enter the Westgate complex together with the Kenyan army.

Today, one of the most spoken-about security miscalculations is what many security analysts interpreted as delayed response by security forces to arrive at the scene, and the subsequent miscoordination of the different units deployed to contain the situation.

Ex-GSU officer and Security Consultant George Musamali recalls when things started to go south.

“This was not just any other operation, it was complex but the mistakes were also too glaring. Each unit was coming in with its own command, and it was all clear that the operation was going to be bungled,” he says.

“The GSU were deployed and just when they were handling the situation, the army came in and I remember everybody else was kicked out, and this is where the operation started going badly.”

And although the attack exposed glaring weaknesses in the country’s security response, some observers reckon that since then Kenya has taken significant steps to overcome terrorism, though many agree that challenges still persist.

“ While we have made progress in strengthening intelligence networks and community policing, our counter-terrorism efforts remain largely reactive, fragmented, and at times politicized,” notes Dr Likaka.

“The securitized approach often overlooks deeper drivers such as radicalization, unemployment, and state-community mistrust. Without addressing these structural issues, we are stuck in a cycle of responding to attacks instead of preventing them,” adds Dr Likaka.

Many business centers and malls in Nairobi and other major towns have since upgraded their security systems, and stakeholders in the private security sector have been calling for proper inclusion in the country’s counter-terrorism strategies.

“Private guards are on most occasions the first you encounter anywhere you go, they are the frontliners, and therefore any anti-terrorism counter-efforts must include the private players from intelligence sharing to combating terror itself,” observes Evalyne Kemuma, a security consultant and counseling psychologist.

“Upskilling and equipping private guards in line with modern technologies, to anticipate the ever-evolving crime and terrorism dynamics, must continuously be done if we are to counter the growing threats,” adds Kemuma.

Despite some of these efforts, however, over the years, the al-Shabaab threat has not completely vanished as communities in parts of Northern and Coastal Kenya, particularly in Lamu, Garissa, and Mandera, continue to face sporadic cross-border raids, particularly along the country’s border with Somalia, that have claimed both civilians and officers.

In March this year, six police reservists were killed and four others wounded when suspected militants ambushed a National Police Reservists camp in Fafi, Garissa County, the attackers overrunning and ransacking the security outpost.

Just weeks earlier, the news of five local chiefs who were abducted in Elwak, Mandera County, in a brazen kidnapping gripped the nation and left local communities shaken.

On more than one occasion, quarry workers in Mandera have also borne the brunt of the insurgency; five of them were ambushed and killed earlier this year in yet another suspected al-Shabaab attack.

But even with the happenings, Kenya’s security agencies have reportedly foiled some plots and even arrested those linked to the attacks, thwarting some major security threats.

In February, detectives arrested two men in Mandera believed to be planning the abduction of foreigners working at a local construction site. One of the suspects is said to have crossed into Kenya from Somalia using forged documents.

One of the boldest moves hailed in the country’s anti-terrorism efforts has been the establishment and expansion of the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) and anchoring it firmly in the country’s security laws.
The man currently leading the center is Kibiego Kigen, who remains optimistic about the future.

“So far so good, ours is to focus on soft approaches, the security agencies are also doing their bit. The government has also done its bit. In the online domain, we are also pushing it (radicalization) back, and as we transition to the new strategy we have seen successes that we want to build on so that more successes can be sustained.”

Kenya has continuously ramped up counter-terrorism efforts, establishing specialized units, tightening border controls, and launching deradicalization initiatives across parts of the country.

The passing of tough anti-terror laws has also been hailed as a step in the right direction, but some analysts have sometimes raised doubts about their misapplication on civilians, especially in the recent Gen Z protests.

Former Chief Justice David Maraga has been at the forefront of lashing out at the government of the day.

“The reckless use and application of the anti-terrorism laws is an abuse of the courts and a violation of or a significant threat to Kenyans’ freedom of assembly and expression,” stated Maraga recently, a notion that is supported by civil rights activists.

“Innocent civilians, particularly young men and women who have stood up against authoritarian tendencies, have been subjected to harassment, arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, and even killings, all justified under the blanket of ‘counterterrorism,” says Hussein Khalid of Vocal Africa.

“Instead of focusing squarely on dismantling terror networks, authorities have used these laws to profile communities, harass protestors, silence dissent, and criminalize poverty,” adds Khalid.

In parts of the country, especially at the Coast and Northern Kenya, communities have lamented elements of heavy-handedness by security apparatus in the name of fighting terrorism.

“Countless young men have been profiled, tortured, or killed without due process and to be honest, these brutal methods not only fuel mistrust between citizens and security agencies but create room for further radicalization,” says Khalid.

In pursuit for justice, in October 2020, the Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi delivered a landmark judgment that convicted two men primly linked to the deadly siege.

One of them, Mohammed Ahmed Abdi, was sentenced for 33 years and another one, Hussein Hassan Mustafa handed an 18-year sentence. 

A third suspect, Liban Abdullahi Omar was acquitted for lack of sufficient evidence.

Al-Shabaab operatives who stormed the mall armed with AK-47 rifles and grenades, were reportedly killed during the siege itself. Others, believed to have coordinated the operation from Somalia investigators say they are still on their trail to date. 

After more than a decade of battling al-Shabaab militants across the border, the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) are in the final stages of withdrawal under the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS).

Under ATMIS, Kenya had committed to pull out its troops by 31 December 2024. Military sources say, since late 2023, Kenyan contingents have reportedly been gradually handing over forward operating bases to the Somali National Army, part of a careful drawdown that has already seen thousands of AU troops from other countries depart.

Today, twelve years on, Westgate still stands, rebuilt and rebranded, refusing to surrender to terror but forever etched in Kenya’s national psyche as a turning point in its battle with violent extremism.

The sad events have, to a large extent, pressed a rethink button for most business centers and malls in Nairobi, many having to modernize their security systems.

“We have no room to drop the ball or lower our guard. In security we say when it’s quiet that’s the time to be even more vigilant. We are not yet out of the woods and we must remain steadfast,” states Kemuma.

Khalid notes: “ Even as we remember the victims, we must commit not only to honoring their memory but also to building a country where justice, accountability, and the protection of human life remain at the center of our fight against terrorism,”

Dr. Likaka is also rooting for deliberate vigilance: “Complacency is dangerous. Until we combine intelligence-driven security with governance reforms, socio-economic resilience, and genuine trust-building with communities, we will remain vulnerable.”