Brave officer who nearly lost his arm inside Westgate Mall

Kenya: Corporal Moses Ewosit Lebinon was looking forward to a quiet afternoon on September 21 at work. The day looked ordinary as the officer went about his duties at his Nairobi office and nothing could have prepared him for the events that unfolded that afternoon.

Ewosit, who was attached to the Special Crimes Prevention Unit (SCPU) based at the Criminal investigations Department (CID) remembers the events of the dark day vividly.

“I was with some colleagues poring over some recent crimes reports when one colleague heard communications over the radio,” he recalls.

“He then stormed the room where we were and said, Kimeumana fuata sisi (hell has broken loose follow us,” Ewosit remembers his colleague telling them.

Ewosit and two other colleagues followed in a separate vehicle, unprepared for the ambush that lay ahead. “We took Valley Road and drove at a break-neck speed. On reaching Serena Hotel, I remember putting on my bullet-proof jacket. That is what saved my life on that fateful day,” he says.

On reaching Westgate, the officers were welcomed by a scene of devastation.

“My 23 years in service could not prepare me for what I saw. There were bodies everywhere in the parking lot. Those who had been shot but were still alive writhed and groaned on the ground in pain while others were trapped in their cars with gunshot wounds,” he says.

Ewosit recounts that there was more horror on the ramp leading upstairs, with bodies littered nearly every inch as blood flowed in small streams. Shocked at the extent of the attack, the six officers who were among the first to arrive at the scene got confused and id not know how to proceed.

“We kept asking ourselves what was going on. Apparently, we were faced with an enemy whose strength we did not know. No ordinary criminals would leave behind that kind of damage, we thought. It immediately became clear to us that we were confronting terrorists,” says Ewosit.

 ENEMY OR FRIEND

In the nick of time, the officers raced to the rooftop where a cooking competition was taking place. On the way up, they met even more chaos, desperation and death.

“On reaching the third floor, we found a white man who had jumped from the top floor with a child. He could not move because he had broken one of his legs. I approached him and tried to help him up. In a trembling voice, he asked me whether I was an enemy or a friend, to which I replied I was an officer ready to help,” he says.

The trio arrived at the rooftop where they found children and adults scampering for safety in the tiniest of crevices among piles of bodies and pool of blood.

“I have seen blood and death before but none compared to what I saw at Westgate,” Ewosit told The Standard in an interview at his police residence.

On their way up, the officers had picked up the injured and handed them to Red Cross teams that had arrived at the scene.

“There was this old crippled Asian man we found sandwiched between cars on the third floor after he had been shot. He begged us to save his life. I would later meet him at the Aga Khan Hospital,” he says.

Soon the officers were joined by the Recce Company from the General Service Unit (GSU).

“The officers would break down doors with a special explosive and we would storm one room after another, arms at the ready - in a scene reminiscent of a movie,” Ewosit says.

Then someone told the officers the terrorists were at the Nakumatt supermarket downstairs.

“We stormed the supermarket and found four terrified security guards who told us the terrorists were hiding at the mattresses area.

“We were in the supermarket with a colleague and one officer from the Recce Company. Just when we were questioning the guards, Nairobi PPO Moses Ombati entered the store. I tried to gesture to him to come and help someone next to me who had been shot.”

 FOUR GUARDS DEAD

“He hesitated a bit and then disappeared behind a shelf to attend to yet another victim and that is what saved his life because a second latter, the attackers who were hiding behind the mattresses sprayed us with bullets. All the four guards and the Recce officers were felled in a hail of bullets. I just managed to duck and hid behind a thin door frame. My whole body was covered with spluttering brains of the slain guards,” he says.

“A colleague who was watching from his hideout across the room thought I was dead and he thought he saw a ghost after I picked my phone to brief our commander of the situation inside the building,” he adds.

Ewosit remembers that the incessant gunfire from behind the mattresses would not stop for half an hour. “A few of the shots caught my hand, which was exposed, severing my left finger,” he says.

In the meantime, the Recce officer who had been shot lay on the floor in a pool of blood. In a faint voice, he pleaded with Ewosit to save his life.

“His words still echo in my head to date. He kept pleading with me to save his life, saying he had three small children. It was terrible seeing him in that situation, yet I could not help. His predicament hurt me to the point that I forgot about my pain. After some time, he stopped and laid still.”

After about an hour, Ewosit remembers that more officers came into the room. The shooting had also stopped.

“Ombati appeared in the scene again. He took a cloth and wrapped it around my hand which was bleeding and helped me up. I went upstairs where I handed over my gun before being helped into a waiting ambulance and taken to the Aga Khan Hospital,” he says.

At the hospital, Ewosit received a hero’s welcome by those who had seen him earlier in the day helping people at the mall. Ewosit would spend the next six months in hospital. “The skin grafting experience was rather painful and traumatic,” he says.