Kenya’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta has said that security forces have eliminated all four militants who attacked a popular hotel and office complex in Nairobi.
He also confirmed that 14 civilians were killed during the attack.
Speaking today, Wednesday, January 16, 2019, Kenyatta said that 14 “innocent lives” had been lost but over 700 civilians were safely evacuated.
According to the reports, the attack had started at about 3pm on Tuesday, January 15, 2019, with an explosion in the complex parking lot followed by a suicide bomb blast in the hotel’s foyer.
The police said that the assault on the compound in the centre of the Kenyan capital which contained restaurants, a spa and several office buildings housing international companies as well as the luxury hotel, was the most high-profile carried out by Terrorists in the last several years.
The reports also revealed that the militant Islamist organisation based in neighbouring Somalia, al-Shabaab, have claimed responsibility for the attack which comes after their attack on Nairobi’s Westgate Mall, leaving about 67 people dead in 2013.
In his statement, Kenyatta vowed to “pursue relentlessly those involved in the funding, planning and execution of a heinous act wherever they will be” adding that the country was on “highest alert”.
Security camera images show four young men in black combat outfits, loaded belts, and armed with AK47s, entering the compound.
According to the reports, the gunmen initially targeted a bank as well as diners at a Thai restaurant, causing panic to spread in the area.
Speaking on the harrowing incident, Survivors recalled hearing a loud blast as people were run down by gunmen as they sat at a cafe. Victims were reportedly left bleeding on the tables of the restaurant.
Enoch Kibet who works as a cleaner at the cafe, and managed to crawl out of a basement gate during the attack, said, “We were changing our shifts, and that is when I heard a loud blast and people were screaming.
“I couldn’t believe I was alive. The blast was so loud and shook the whole complex.”
Hours after the attack, security forces are reported to have engaged the gunmen in a shoot out.
Another witness who pleaded anonymity, said, “There was a bomb, there is a lot of gunfire.”
Other witnesses described office workers in the complex taking refuge under desks or behind temporary barricades.
At about 7am on Wednesday morning, wounded casualties were still being brought out of the complex around 7am when gunfire and blasts were heard.
Local media reports the account of a woman rescued from the salon she manages at the dusitD2 complex on Tuesday.
“I was working there when the attackers stormed in, it was not easy just like today. All I can say is that I thank God,” Tracy Wanjiru said while speaking with Nairobi News.
Wanjiru recalled hearing a loud explosion on Tuesday and went out to see what had caused it.
“I jumped back to the salon, told my colleagues to be keen because we were under attack. They dismissed me at first but when they heard wails and screams, everyone went into hiding,” she said.
The Guardian reports that Western and international security officials have revealed that they warned Kenyan counterparts of high profile attacks by al-Shabaab, an affiliate of al-Qaida, over the course of Christmas and the new year.
Kenyatta has also said that operations to “deter, disrupt and defeat” terrorist operatives and groups” are currently underway all through Kenya. “I assure every Kenyan and foreign visitors that you are safe in Kenya,” he said.
