Kenya will remain a target for extremists as long as its soldiers stay in Somalia

Word of an attack first spread through Twitter, as it so often does. One user asked: “Does anyone know what’s happening in Riverside? There’s been an explosion and what sounds like gunshots.”

Another post stated: “Fourteen Riverside is under attack. There are gunshots and explosions.”

Citizen TV Kenya arrived on the scene and started streaming.

Soon most of Nairobi knew that gunmen had blasted their way through security and detonated a suicide bomb in the lobby of the upscale DusitD2 hotel at 14 Riverside Drive, which also has banks, restaurants and shops.

Friends and loved ones of those trapped inside gathered anxiously at the police perimeter, glued to their phones as periodic gunshots and blasts echoed from within.

The name “Al Shabab” was on everyone’s lips long before the militant group claimed responsibility for the attack.

The next 24 hours felt familiar for anyone who had lived through the Westgate Mall attack in 2013 or the Garissa University massacre of 2015.

Ambulances hurried toward Kenyatta Hospital. The Inspector General went on television to assure citizens that an operation was under way to secure the area and that they were “mopping up” – only for gunfire to continue until morning.

Residents lined up to donate blood. Devastated families arrived at Chiromo Mortuary to identify the bodies.

The official death toll rose from one to 14. President Uhuru Kenyatta addressed the nation yesterday morning and said all of the extremists had been killed.

Mr Kenyatta praised the reponse from authorities and promised to bring those responsible to justice.

“We will seek out every single person that was involved in the funding, planning and execution of the heinous act,” he said.

“We will pursue them relentlessly wherever they will be until they are held to account.”

A security and policy analyst who specialises in the Horn of Africa, Abdullahi Boru Halakhe, said this type of talk avoided a central question: why is Kenya being attacked in the first place?

“Every time these attacks pop up you’ll hear the president and the whole government machinery saying the usual stuff,” Mr Halakhe said. “‘Hey look, it’s over, we’ve been tested, we’ll come back stronger,’ yadda yadda yadda.

“But, from a policy perspective, as long as we are inside Somalia, Kenyans will continue to be attacked.”

Kenya has had troops in Somalia since 2011, in an intervention that marked the start of retaliatory attacks.

Riverside came three years to the day that a massive Al Shabab assault on Kenya Defence Forces in El Adde, Somalia, resulted in the deaths of at least 141 Kenyan soldiers.

Kenyan forces are in Somalia as part of the African Union mission, a peacekeeping effort that supports the Somalian Army in their fight against Al Shabab militants.

Al Shabab’s strength has eroded in recent years but the fight drags on, and the US has intensified a shadow war of drone strikes and special forces operations.

Mr Halakhe said it was no longer clear what the rationale

Riverside came three years to the day that an Al Shabab assault killed 141 Kenyan soldiers

was for Kenya’s presence in the country.

“Kenyans were the secondary targets until after Kenya intervened in Somalia,” he said. “But you’ll hardly hear in any policy discussions: ‘What does success look like? How long are we going to stay? When are we leaving?’”

Famed Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi used Twitter yesterday to call for Kenya to remove its troops from Somalia.

“Every other month our soldiers and police are killed by terrorists in Lamu,” Mr Mwangi tweeted. “It never makes the headlines, though. We have no business in Somalia. Let’s secure Kenya.”

Since Westgate, security at malls and other high-profile targets in Nairobi has been increased significantly.

Compounds encircled by walls are only accessible through gates where vehicles are searched before they enter. Metal detectors are highly visible at every pedestrian entrance.

The DusitD2 hotel had security that ranked among the best in Nairobi, but metal detectors can do little against combatants with AK-47 assault rifles and suicide vests – and a porous, 682-kilometre border with Somalia where armed militants can bribe their way in easily.

Mr Halakhe says the relatively quick and co-ordinated response to the Riverside attack shows that Kenya has learnt some lessons from Westgate and Garissa.

“This one was really quick,” he said. “The interagency co-ordination needs to be applauded. My worry is guided by the history of how the state has continued to respond in the past.

“It can only be great with successful prosecutions: a very judicious, tenacious collection of evidence. That is the next phase.”