Kenya buries mall victims
Security teams continue to search for bodies and clues
NAIROBI: Kenya has buried victims of a four-day mall massacre by militants as international forensic and security experts scanned the rubble for bodies and clues.
Weeping mourners from multiple religions gathered for the latest funerals of the 67 victims whose bodies have so far been recovered from the wreckage of Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall.
Across Kenya, flags flew at half mast for the second of three days of national mourning.
President Uhuru Kenyatta announced an end to the 80-hour bloodbath late Tuesday, with the “immense” loss of 61 civilians and six members of the security forces. Five suspected attackers were also killed, and 11 detained, officials said.
Police said the death toll was provisional, with the Kenyan Red Cross reporting 71 people missing.
In one of many funerals, over two thousand mourners turned out yesterday morning to pay their final respects to Ruhila Adatia, 31, a popular television and radio personality who was pregnant with her first child, in a joint ceremony also held for Shairoz Dossa, 44, a mother of three.
Both came from Kenya’s Ismaili Muslim community.
Shelina Manji, a friend of Adatia, said the last time they saw each other they promised to talk later.
“We never had that conversation,” she told the sombre crowd, some dabbing their eyes as tears welled up.
The front page of The Standard, one of Kenya’s main daily newspapers, simply showed a red rose and the headline, “In honour of our fallen loved ones.”
Teams of volunteer counsellors and psychologists have set up several centres, including at the main morgue in Nairobi, where “anyone who was affected by the Westgate attack can obtain counselling”, they said in a statement.
As Kenyans mourned, rescuers and investigators continued to search the damaged Westgate mall complex, a large section of which collapsed after heavy explosions and a fierce fire.
Thin wisps of grey smoke continued to rise from the building, apparently from where the back of the building has collapsed, with tonnes of concrete now smothering where the insurgents are believed to have made their final stand, alongside possibly multiple hostages.
Police have repeatedly called for Kenyans to be patient but many are growing frustrated. — AFP