Nairobi attack to trigger tighter security for shoppers
The deadly attack on a high-end Kenyan shopping centre on Saturday put the safety of malls around the world into the spotlight.
‘‘They’re obviously going to ramp up security,’’ said Malachy Kavanagh, a spokesman for the International Council of Shopping Centers, a US-based trade group of shopping centre owners.
Some of the changes that may be made include bringing in off-duty police officers into malls, putting more plainclothes security officers into uniform, and more closely coordinating with local police departments.
At least 68 people were killed and 175 wounded in the attack by Somalia’s alShabaab group at Nairobi’s Westgate mall on Sunday. Those killed included Kenyans, Dutch, British and Chinese citizens, and diplomats from Canada and Ghana.
The Westgate mall has several Israeliowned outlets and is frequented by prosperous Kenyans and foreigners.
‘‘Shopping centres and retailers will have to spend more money on security,’’ Irwin Barkan, CEO of mall developer BGI LLC, said by phone from Ghana, where he is based.
‘‘I hope it doesn’t get to the point where it is like getting into an airport,’’ Mr Barkan said ahead of a trip to Nairobi for the African Hotel Investment Forum this week.
Mr Kavanagh said US shoppers have indicated they do not want to go through security lines with metal detectors and other security machines.
Following the attacks on New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington on Sept 11, 2001, the trade group surveyed mall shoppers about their views on such ideas. ‘‘Unless there was an immediate threat, by and large they said ‘no’,’’ he said. US counterterrorism officials and experts have privately expressed worries for years — since even before 9/11 — that US shopping malls and other public spaces, including public transport systems, were vulnerable to attacks. Juan Zarate, a former White House counter-terrorism adviser and author of Treasury’s War, a new book on the subject, said one of the major concerns for counterterrorism officials is that there could be imitators of this type of ‘‘soft target’’ attack.
‘‘Like the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, terrorist cells are learning they can have strategic impact with dramatic terror focused on soft targets, having significant psychological and economic effects,’’ Mr Zarate said.
In November 2008, 10 gunmen went on a three-day killing spree in Mumbai, attacking two luxury hotels, a train station and a Jewish centre, among other places in India’s most populous city.
In the US, a source at one of the country’s biggest mall owners said the company is constantly focused on safety and security, not just after events such as the one in Kenya.
The source said that shoppers can see some elements of security, while others are not visible. REUTERS