{"id":49602,"date":"2014-09-21T08:15:07","date_gmt":"2014-09-21T08:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=49602"},"modified":"2014-09-21T08:15:07","modified_gmt":"2014-09-21T08:15:07","slug":"kenya-marks-westgate-mall-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=49602","title":{"rendered":"Kenya marks Westgate mall attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kenya is marking a year since the attack on Nairobi’s Westgate shopping centre, in which at least 67 people were killed.<\/p>\n

A memorial plaque will be unveiled and a candle-lit vigil held.<\/p>\n

The siege at Westgate lasted four days, with CCTV footage showing terrified shoppers fleeing the gunmen and cowering behind counters.<\/p>\n

Somali Islamist group al-Shabab said it carried out the attack in response to Kenya’s military operations in Somalia.<\/p>\n

On high alert<\/strong><\/p>\n

Later on Sunday, relatives of the victims will lay wreaths at a garden in the forest where 67 trees were planted after the attack.<\/p>\n

Interfaith prayers will also be held at the site.<\/p>\n

“We expect the victims’ families and friends to come out and be part of the healing process,” event organiser Rajesh Shah was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.<\/p>\n

\"One<\/div>\n
CCTV footage showed the gunmen hunting down their victims<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Ahead of the commemorations, Kenya was put on high alert amid fears of possible attacks by militants.<\/span><\/div>\n

“We are prepared in case of anything. Specialised units are on the ground and we have intensified patrols during this period of the anniversary,” Kenyan police chief David Kimaiyo said.<\/p>\n

Leader assassinated<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last year’s attack sparked a four-day siege in which large parts of the shopping centre were destroyed amid heavy fighting and a fire.<\/p>\n

All four gunmen are believed to have died during the assault.<\/p>\n

The Kenyan authorities have been criticised for what is seen by some analysts as their slow response to the attack and also lack of co-ordination between police and the army. Kenya rejects the claims.<\/p>\n

Four Somalis are being held in prison in Kenya on terrorism charges linked to the attack.<\/p>\n

Al-Shabab is fighting to create an Islamic state in Somalia and is banned as a terrorist group by both the US and the UK.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, al-Shabab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane was assassinated in US air strikes in southern Somalia.<\/p>\n

The militants later chose a new chief and vowed revenge attacks.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kenya is marking a year since the attack on Nairobi’s Westgate shopping centre, in which at least 67 people were killed. A memorial plaque will be unveiled and a candle-lit vigil held. The siege at Westgate lasted four days, with CCTV footage showing terrified shoppers fleeing the gunmen and cowering behind counters. Somali Islamist group […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":49603,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[38,14],"class_list":["post-49602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-palaver-newspaper","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/49603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}