{"id":30118,"date":"2019-01-22T12:23:01","date_gmt":"2019-01-22T12:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=30118"},"modified":"2019-01-22T12:23:01","modified_gmt":"2019-01-22T12:23:01","slug":"memorial-held-for-victims-of-al-shabab-attack-in-nairobi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=30118","title":{"rendered":"Memorial held for victims of al-Shabab attack in Nairobi"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A memorial service has been held in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Tuesday for some of the victims of last week’s deadly hotel and office complex attack<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Twenty-one people were killed last Tuesday when gunmen from the al-Qaeda-linked armed group, al-Shabab, raided the upscale DusitD2 complex.<\/p>\n

Cellulant, an online payment company headquartered at the compound which was attacked, lost six of its employees in the siege.<\/p>\n

“Ashford was a dear brother to me,” Alex Kimani, a colleague of Ashford Kuria, who died in the attack, said during the memorial service.<\/p>\n

“He mentored many directly and indirectly. He challenged each and every one to grow. He was our go-to guy when you had a problem or needed a solution to solve anything,” Kimani added.<\/p>\n

Hundreds attended the church service for the Cellulant employees that honoured what the memorial programme described as “The Brave Six”.<\/p>\n

It said 17 staff members tried to flee the office during the January 15 attack but were met with a “barrage of gunfire”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

President Uhuru Kenyatta<\/a> said on Wednesday that the attackers behind the siege which lasted for more than 18 hours were killed.<\/p>\n

Since then the Kenyan government has taken measures to find anyone connected to the assault, and prevent further attacks.<\/p>\n

Suspects arrested<\/h2>\n

Security forces raided premises and picked up suspects soon after the siege ended. Since last Tuesday, at least eleven people have been taken into custody in connection with the attack.<\/p>\n

Five of them<\/a> appeared before a Nairobi court. The court ordered the four Kenyans and one Canadian national to be held in custody for 30 days to give prosecutors time to conclude their probe.<\/p>\n

Homegrown threat<\/h2>\n

Four of the five attackers captured on CCTV at the scene of the raid have been identified as\u00a0Kenyan nationals<\/a>, including what is\u00a0believed to be the first Kenyan to be involved in a suicide attack on home soil.<\/p>\n

Security officials named 25-year-old Mombasa-born Mahir Khalid Riziki as the individual who blew himself up outside the Secret Garden Cafe.<\/p>\n

In previous major attacks<\/a>\u00a0by al-Shabab in the east African country of 50 million people, the assailants were all believed to be foreigners.<\/p>\n

Arming guards<\/h2>\n

Following the siege, Nairobi announced that private security officers guarding public spaces such\u00a0as malls, supermarkets and private premises, will be given guns for the first time.<\/p>\n

The government said they will be given six months of intensive and compulsory training before being issued with firearms.<\/p>\n

New attack<\/h2>\n

Eight gunmen suspected of belonging to al-Shabab attacked a Chinese construction site between the northern towns of Garissa and Wajir on Sunday evening.<\/p>\n

The regional police chief David Kerina said an attack on a second site was thwarted.<\/p>\n

At least 45 workers were at the first attack. The company is building a highway in northern Kenya.\u00a0<\/p>\n

All have been accounted for, according to police, adding that the attack was successfully repulsed.<\/p>\n

Two people, a security guard and his wife, were wounded in the raid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n SOURCE:
\n Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A memorial service has been held in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Tuesday for some of the victims of last week’s deadly hotel and office complex attack. Twenty-one people were killed last Tuesday when gunmen from the al-Qaeda-linked armed group, al-Shabab, raided the upscale DusitD2 complex. Cellulant, an online payment company headquartered at the compound…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":30119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}