Video shows soldiers carrying ‘goods’

Barely a day after MPs investigating the Westgate terrorist attack absolved the Kenya Defence Forces of allegations of looting, footage seen by the Saturday Nation shows soldiers carrying items out of the besieged mall.

The 30-minute closed circuit television footage shows scores of soldiers rummaging through the Nakumatt Supermarket and leaving with white polythene bags whose contents cannot be seen.

In the footage, about six armed soldiers in full military fatigue are also seen entering a cubicle, thought to be an M-Pesa outlet, near the supermarket’s entry. They are seen ransacking the shop and then leaving, with one putting something in his pocket. Once again, it is not clear what was taken from the cubicle.

The clip captured by closed circuit cameras mounted at the entrance to the supermarket does not show the tills or other cash points, making it hard to ascertain whether the soldiers also grabbed money in the course of ending the siege by al-Shabaab terrorists.

The four-day assault started on September 21 and left at least 70 people dead, including soldiers and police officers. (READ: Video captures attackers’ brutality)

RANSACK RECEPTION

In the latest footage, one soldier is seen putting down his gun and then proceeding to ransack the reception area for valuables. After about a minute, the seemingly dejected soldier is seen picking up his gun and leaving.

The video clip shows events a day after the terrorists, said to have been about 10 to 15, stormed the mall and went on a shooting spree. However, the footage previously seen by the Nation only showed four attackers, leaving questions on the whereabouts of the others.

It is still unclear if there is any other footage of the siege. Multiple security sources indicate there was no power inside the mall on the last two days making it difficult to get any closed circuit TV clips.

The footage gives a glimpse of the goings on at the time and lends credence to claims that the soldiers could have been behind the suspected massive looting at the mall during the terrorist attack last month.

At least 20 complaints of looting have been filed by businesses at the upscale mall, which had about 85 outlets. Some have claimed their shops were intact when they went in after the siege ended, but found merchandise missing on subsequent visits.

Only soldiers were allowed inside the mall until September 24 when the siege ended. The army had taken over from the elite General Service Unit Recce squad on the evening of September 21.

The missing merchandise included jewellery, cash and electronics. A video of a popular restaurant ArtCaffe inside the mall, posted on YouTube also showed dozens of empty beer bottles. There have been allegations that the soldiers may have taken time off from the rescue to drink.

The military has protested its innocence with Defence Secretary Raychelle Omamo saying: “The defence force’s conduct inside the mall was guided by international standard operating procedures that govern such missions.”

REPATRIATED

Two weeks ago, military spokesman Emmanuel Chirchir appeared to be fighting a losing battle on social media as he tried to contain vitriol from Kenyans.

“It was sad to be labelled LOOTERS ARMY and LOOTERS BRIGADE,” tweeted Maj Chirchir.

He announced that more than Sh300 million was “repatriated” (transferred to safer outlets) from the banks, forex bureaus and casinos at Westgate.

On Thursday, MPs investigating the attack disagreed after co-chairs of the National Security and Defence joint committees appeared to defend the military.

The chairs of the two committees also said that the claim of business owners of looting was a ploy to get compensation from insurance firms.

National Security committee chairman Asman Kamama and his Defence and Foreign Relations counterpart Ndung’u Githinji addressed journalists after meeting the country’s security chiefs.

“Not all Kenyans are as forthright as you may like to believe and some will use the cover of looting to seek compensation from insurance firms,” Mr Githinji said suggesting that the traders were also eyeing the government’s help to recover their lost property.

Mr Kamama and Mr Githinji repeatedly told reporters that they had been convinced from evidence provided that the soldiers who were in the mall did not loot.

“We want to confirm to the media and Kenyans that from what we have seen, no officer looted as alleged and we want to appeal to Kenyans in the social media to desist from besmirching and maligning the name of the defence forces,” Mr Kamama insisted.

However, Kitutu Chache South MP Richard Onyonka stormed out of the press conference when the two committee chairs appeared to deny him a chance to respond on inquiries on how they had cleared the soldiers.

“This issue of Westgate is under investigation, but it is unfortunate that even when we know our security forces may have done a good job to contain the problem, for the two co-chairs to clear Kenya Defence Forces when the report has not been finalised,” he protested.

While Ms Omamo and Maj Chirchir have maintained that no money was lost, Col Cyrus Oguna, another military spokesman, stated that a bank and casino lost Sh2.9 million to looters in the wake of the attack.