Kenya is “at war” with Islamist militants who attacked a Nairobi shopping mall, the government said yesterday, as it faced questions about whether it had received advance intelligence warnings of the deadly strike.
A week after the raid on the Westgate shopping centre that killed 67 civilians and police and was claimed by the Somali militant group al Shabaab, the government has been trying to reassure Kenyans that it can protect them .
Three Kenyan newspapers reported yesterday that a year ago the country’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) had warned of the presence of suspected al Shabaab militants in Nairobi and that they were planning to carry out “suicide attacks” on the Westgate mall and on a church in the city.
In front-page stories, the Nation, Standard and Star newspapers questioned whether the Kenyan government and military may have failed to act on this and more recent warnings this year by local and foreign intelligence services.
“It is not a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer,” Mutea Iringo, principal secretary in the Ministry of Interior, said.
“Every day, we get intelligence and action is taken as per that intelligence and many attacks averted. But the fact that you get the intelligence does not mean something cannot happen,” the senior official added.
“What we are saying is that we are at war, and that every day some young Kenyan is being radicalised by al Shabaab to kill Kenyans,” Iringo said.
The newspaper reports emerged ahead of a meeting tomorrow of the Kenyan Parliament’s defence and foreign relations committee which is expected to ask security chiefs how much warning they had of yesterday’s assault.
Every day some young Kenyan is being radicalised to kill Kenyans
In the four-day mall attack, gunmen fired on shoppers and tossed grenades, leaving a trail of victims. Al Shabaab said it acted in revenge against Kenyan troops who have been fighting it in neighbouring Somalia for two years.
Britain’s government said yesterday a sixth British national had been identified among those killed at the mall.