Tens of security personnel have been mobilized and deployed at various places as the country marks ten years since terrorists stormed Westgate Shopping Mall in Westlands and killed at least 70 people.
Police said they had enhanced operations to disrupt any form of insecurity related to similar attack.
There will be multi agency teams in various places in the country.
As part of planned events to mark the day, Interior Principal Secretary Raymond Omollo and said Director General Private Security Regulatory Authority Fazul Mohamed will visit various malls in the city and launch special badges for the guards.
They will later commemorate the day at the Westgate Mall.
Read: Court Frees One Westgate Mall Terror Suspect, Three Others Put On Defence
On 21 September 2013, four masked gunmen attacked the Westgate shopping mall, an upscale mall in Nairobi, Kenya and killed about 70 people.
That afternoon of September 21, a group of armed attackers pulled up at the main entrance of the Westgate Mall, driving a Mitsubishi Lancer with the registration plate KAS 575X.
They immediately began throwing grenades and shooting at bystanders.
Then they stormed into the main mall to indiscriminately target shoppers marking the start of the siege.
While in the mall, the gang kept communicating with their associates in Somalia.
Read Also: KRA Denied A Slice Of Ksh4.4 Billion Paid To Westgate Mall Owners
According officials, before the attack, the security agencies had demonstrated their capability both analytically and operationally in containing many of the terror group’s complex and spectacular plots.
Al Shabaab militants have been blamed for the attack.
“Operation Linda Mpaka”, which was a Kenya Defence Forces covert operation in Somalia had rattled the terror group.
This was before the publicly declared “Operation Linda Nchi” in October 2011 when President Mwai Kibaki announced that Kenyan troops were moving into the war-torn nation to pursue the militants.
The terrorists had made declarations indicating their attacks in Kenya.
Read Also: Two Westgate Terror Attack Convicts Sentenced To 33 And 18 Years In Jail
Security agencies managed to tame the siege after four days. By then more than 70 people had died and dozens others injured.
And since then, Kenyan security agencies adopted a multi agency approach, which has helped them address many challenges.
In 2020, a court sentenced two men to 18 and 33 years in jail after they were convicted of helping Islamist militants attack a shopping mall in 2013.
The state said the four militants who carried out the attack were found dead in the shopping centre’s rubble.
These are the only convictions relating to the Westgate attack.
Read Also: Court Orders Probe Into Abduction Of Acquitted Westgate Terror Suspect Liban Omar
A third man who was found not guilty on all counts of conspiracy to commit a terrorist act has been missing since the day after the verdict was announced.
Mohammed Ahmed Abdi, who received a 33-year prison sentence, and Hussein Hassan Mustafa, who was jailed for 18 years, were charged with planning and committing acts of terror, as well as supporting and helping a terrorist group.
The third suspect, Liban Abdullahi, was found not guilty. The Somali refugee was also acquitted of the charge of being in Kenya illegally and possessing identification documents by false presence.
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