A year after Westgate: Nairobi pays tribute to victims
- 10 years ago
On the anniversary weekend of the Westgate mall terror attack in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, commemorative events were being held across the city.
A performance of poetry, some of it written by survivors – called “Stories from the Mall” – was one such event.
It brought together some of the Kenyan capital’s leading actors and an audience still coming to terms with a tragedy that struck in the heart of their city.
“One of the pieces asks the question.. the possibility that this could come back worse, more tragic. And it asks questions like, “Who are they,” “Will they return?” These are questions that people ask,” said Mugambi Nthiga, director and curator of “Stories from the Mall”.
At least 67 people were killed during the storming and siege at Westgate.
Armed gunman took over the mall on Saturday 21 September, during the early afternoon when it was full of shoppers.
They held the parts of the building for four days, engaged in a stand-off with police.
Al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda-linked Islamist militant group, said it had carried out the attack in retaliation for Kenyan military involvement in Somalia.
Al-Shabaab leader and co-founder Ahmed Godane was killed in a US drone strike in Somalia earlier this month.
A performance of poetry, some of it written by survivors – called “Stories from the Mall” – was one such event.
It brought together some of the Kenyan capital’s leading actors and an audience still coming to terms with a tragedy that struck in the heart of their city.
“One of the pieces asks the question.. the possibility that this could come back worse, more tragic. And it asks questions like, “Who are they,” “Will they return?” These are questions that people ask,” said Mugambi Nthiga, director and curator of “Stories from the Mall”.
At least 67 people were killed during the storming and siege at Westgate.
Armed gunman took over the mall on Saturday 21 September, during the early afternoon when it was full of shoppers.
They held the parts of the building for four days, engaged in a stand-off with police.
Al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda-linked Islamist militant group, said it had carried out the attack in retaliation for Kenyan military involvement in Somalia.
Al-Shabaab leader and co-founder Ahmed Godane was killed in a US drone strike in Somalia earlier this month.