We were not warned, says Westgate official

The management of the Westgate Mall did not receive any prior reports of a possible terror attack on the building, an official said Tuesday.

The mall’s property manager, Ms Simmi Chanda, Tuesday said the only report of a possible terror attack ever received by the management was on June 17, 2009, from the International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda, warning of a possible attack on sites frequented by foreigners.

She was speaking to the parliamentary committees on Administration and National Security and the one on Defence and Foreign Relations which are jointly conducting an inquiry into the September 21 attack on the mall.

“No information was received by the management or any other person I know of, whether from government security organs or any other source of an impending terrorist attack on the building,” Ms Chanda told the joint committee.

Asked by the team to clarify whether there was a tunnel which could have been used by the terrorists to escape, Ms Chanda said that the building only has a sealed drainage which comes out via a pump room through a four-inch pipe.

“There is no tunnel out or into the building and I wish to state that the issue of a tunnel was one further creation of the media,” she said.

Ms Chanda said the tunnel that was presented in the reports as the one terrorists might have used to escape is one below the road passing a plot away from the mall.

Rented space

She also denied widespread reports that terrorists could have rented space within the mall.

Ms Chanda told the joint committee that they wrote to both Inspector-General of Police David Kimaiyo and CID Director Ndegwa Muhoro to ensure that each tenant was duly identified and the certainty of their premises and goods confirmed.