ODM wants tribunal formed to probe Westgate terror attack

ODM acting party leader Anyang’ Nyong’o (left) former Deputy Speaker Farah
Maalim (centre) and former Nairobi Mayor George Aladwa during a Press conference at Orange House in Nairobi yesterday. [PHOTO: GOVEDI ASUTSA]

By GEOFFREY MOSOKU and FAITH RONOH

Nairobi, Kenya: The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) now wants a tribunal appointed to investigate last year’s Westgate Mall terror attack.

The party has also asked the State to halt the on-going security operation.

ODM yesterday said Kenyans must get to the bottom of the biggest security lapse in the country in 20 years that claimed over 67 lives.

“We are demanding that investigations, preferably by a select committee of both Houses of Parliament be carried out without further delay,” ODM acting party leader Anyang’ Nyong’o said.

While demanding for the immediate halt to the ongoing security operation, former deputy speaker Farah Maalim accused the State of hiding information on the Westgate attack.

“Why is it that nobody has been sacked after the Westgate attack? Police officers had contained the terrorists to a corner, only for the military to come in and blow up the building to create an impression that the situation was getting out of hand,” Maalim said.

The opposition party accused President Uhuru Kenyatta of hiding the truth on what transpired at the mall. Yesterday, Nyong’o said all Kenyans remember that President Kenyatta promised an inquiry, yet seven months later, he has not appointed the commission.

“We welcomed this because understanding how Westgate happened is critical to unravelling how terror groups operate and the loopholes in our security, intelligence and social systems that they exploit and which need to be sealed,” Nyong’o said.

Addressing a Press conference at Orange house, the ODM team challenged Uhuru to tell Kenyans what he knows about the attack that he is afraid to form the tribunal.

President Kenyatta on Tuesday night said in an interview with a local TV station that the Government did not form an inquiry into Westgate after Parliament launched its investigation.

“There was no need for parallel probes,” Uhuru said.

Wajir East MP Mohamed Elmi, former MP Reuben Ndolo, former Nairobi Mayor George Aladwa and ODM Executive Director Magerer Langat were present during the ODM Press briefing. While criticising the security operation that has targeted Eastleigh, the ODM team likened the holding base at Kasarani Stadium to a concentration camp reminiscent of Mau Mau and Wagalla massacres.

“We wish to express strong displeasure at the swoops going on today, which resemble Operation Anvil of the Mau Mau era or the Wagalla operation of the 1980s. Operation Anvil can easily lead to ethnic profiling. We do not think indiscriminate picking of Somalis is the answer. Al Shabaab is no longer a Somali issue,” Nyong’o added.

The opposition leader demanded answers for security lapses and called for a total overhaul of the immigration and intelligence departments.