Dubai: Members of the Kenyan expatriate community in the UAE are still reeling as authorities assess the aftermath of a climbing death toll in the wake of a four-day terrorist attack on a Kenyan mall.
Somali-based group Al Shabab claimed responsibility for the offensive and may have led the attack with links to Al Qaida.
Reports of more than 67 civilians dead – many of them foreign expats – and six security forces killed at an upscale mall in the capital city of Nairobi have left Kenyan expats abroad worried for the safety of their families back home.
“I was so worried for my aunt and friends when it first happened,” said Stephen Moses Mugo, 31, who works full-time in Dubai and has lived here for more than six years.
“We’re not used to this kind of sudden violence in our country. This attack really shocked everyone,” said Mugo in an interview on Wednesday with Gulf News.
When news first broke that the Westgate mall was attacked by Somali-based Al Shabab group members, Mugo said he was worried that the violence might spread.
“I called my mum to see if everyone in my family was safe. Thank God my family was OK,” he said. “It’s very sad for anyone who lost somebody.”
Anthony, a Kenyan national living in Dubai, said it was difficult to comprehend such an overt physical attack on civilians in a mall of all places.
“Everyone from my home country living here in Dubai is just shocked. We can’t believe something this terrible could happen in such a public place,” he said.
The sadness is expected to deepen as Kenyan authorities said yesterday that the death toll was likely to climb following the discovery that three levels of the mall had collapsed after the four-day siege by Al Shabab which ended in a countermilitary operation on Tuesday by Kenyan soldiers.
Five attackers were said to be killed and a further 11 were taken into custody as officials called for a three-day mourning period.
