Tears flow as victims, their friends and kin commemorate the Westgate attack

Police officers ensure maximum security during the 1st Anniversary of westgate shopping mall after attack by terrorists. (Photo WILLIS AWANDU/STANDARD)

More than 1,000 white and yellow candles flickered as relatives and friends of the Westgate terrorist attack marked the first anniversary yesterday.

The commemoration was held a few metres away from the place where, a year ago, four hooded gunmen staged a reign of terror that left the nation shell-shocked, families devastated and the country’s security system badly exposed.

The first anniversary brought back memories of the horror of the four-day bloody siege in which 67 people lost their lives.

Friends and families of the victims gathered at Westgate to relive a chapter that may not be entirely erased from the nation’s memory.

Just like the 1998 bomb blast whose memory continues to haunt its victims 16 years on, yesterday’s event bore similar hallmarks.

A few metres from where the commemoration was taking place, the Westgate edifice stood just as it has always been – only that this time there were no high-end supermarkets to talk about, no women and children pushing overflowing trollies along the staircases and no hustle and bustles that would be a characteristic of a Sunday morning at the site a year ago.

The place where hundreds of cars would be packed as customers did their shopping was empty.

The walls of the mall still have the bullet marks.

All the facilities that had given Westgate its glamour and made it the place of choice for the many middle class Kenyans had been blown away by the terrorists.

The only thing that now remained inside the cream edifice were secrets which the walls appeared to tightly embrace with all its remaining might.

Relatives attending the commemoration stared at the building, perhaps hoping that it would open up to unravel the secrets it held.

One year down the line, the Government is yet to fully explain the circumstances surrounding the Westgate attack.

A Parliamentary report on the attack was trashed as ‘hollow’ and a commission of inquiry promised by the Government remains just that – a promise.

The Terror in the Mall documentary released a week ago detailing the events in the mall when the terrorists struck is so far the most graphic indictment of the county’s security forces that fumbled as people needlessly bled to death while civilians put their lives on the line to save those who had been trapped in the mall.

Survivors and relatives at yesterday’s commemoration stoically bore their emotional and physical wounds of the fateful day as they quietly filed past to light candles. Next to the platform lay a small green carpet on which red and white flowers were placed.

On the platform was a banner with the words: “Peace be Upon Kenya.”

The National anthem – the nation’s most powerful prayer – was played at the beginning of the commemoration at almost exactly the same time that the terror bullets disturbed the Westgate peace a year ago.

Prayers for the victims were held both at the commemorative site and at the nearby Visa Oshwal temple, where those who lost their relatives and those who had survived gathered to mark the occasion.

Although there were no formal prayers at the site, the words of those whose lives had been shattered by the tragedy told the story.

“He just died. There is nothing I can do to bring him back. He was a good person, and even when I was broke, he would bail me out,” said Jacob Odhiambo, an employee of Aquamist, whose colleague James Mwaura was gunned down as he walked back after delivering water inside the mall.

Sango Shah’s husband died as he was entering his car, and yesterday, she was inconsolable as she walked, accompanied by relatives towards the temple for prayers for her husband, Anuj Shah.

“We were going home and I was waiting for him inside the car. He was shot as he came back to accompany me for lunch,” said the elderly widow who, together with her departed husband owned, a photography shop on the 3rd floor of the mall.

But even as the relatives and victims gathered, some in circles to commemorate, they knew that their loved ones will not come back and all that remained were tears and memories of the fateful day.

Just like mist that is here this moment and gone the next, so had their relatives and friends disappeared.

The emotions of the moment were best captured in the words of a group of young Kenyans who worked a café on the mall and who lost two of their colleagues when the terrorists stormed into the premises and shot indiscriminately.

“If tears could build a staircase and memories a lane, I’d walk right up to heaven and bring you home again,” the messege on their white T-shirts read.

The group had come to remember the lives of Anne Sangoma and Ruth Wanjira whose lives were cut short on the fateful morning as they served clients.

In the group was Joseph Kyalo who still bears a bullet scar on his felt hand. The terrorists missed him narrowly as he ran out of the café through the kitchen emergency exit.

The group will raise money to support the families of their two friends who were killed in the attack.

Ken Mogaka, an employee on Nakumat, left behind three children, Abigael, 12, Beatrice, 8, and Gabby, 4.

“He was the one helping us in the family. When he died, everything in the family came to a standstill,” mourned his brother Justus Mosoti. Such heart-wrenching stories dominated the occasion that was given a wide berth by senior State officials.