BY FREEMAN MAKOPA
Two soldiers were sacked for stealing during a bloody and deadly mall siege in Nairobi in September, Kenya’s military chief said on Tuesday.
The two soldiers who were identified as Victor Otieno and Victor Ashiundu were placed in detention after they were found in possession of mobile phones, cameras and chargers that were stolen from the mall during the siege.
Kenyan Army General Julius Karangi refuted these claims saying the soldiers only took water from the mall during the September 21 attack but the security camera video footage of the Westgate mall shows soldiers taking things from various counters.
In addition shopkeepers also complained about missing items from the shelves when they returned to the mall after the siege. The four day bloody siege which began on September 21 left 67 people killed and 200 others seriously injured in the upmarket mall claimed by Somalia’s Al-Qaeda linked Shebab insurgents.
In a related development Kenyan police said they were set to charge five suspects in connection with their roles in the attack.
Ndengwa Muhoro director of Kenya’s Criminal investigations told reporters that investigations were still underway concerning the text messages that were exchanged in the days prior to the attack.
“We wanted to impeach five of the terrorists in court yesterday but we have decided to first investigate the issue of sms exchange of the terrorists which occurred in September 17”.
Ndengwa also said the suspects were in custody and two others who are believed to have played a role are still at large, he identified the criminals as Kenyan national Abdikadir Haret Mohammed and Somali national named Adam Dheq.
The two criminals owned a Mitsubishi Salon car, the police also found explosives and weapons inside the car he said.
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