Kenya’s no to NSG for study of Nairobi mall siege

A senior official said Kenya declined the request saying the country does not want to share details about an internal-security operation.
“We were keen to go and the government had even cleared our visit, but the Kenyan authorities informed the Ministry of External Affairs that they were not willing to share any such detail with a foreign country,” said a senior official.

Al-Qaida-linked al-Shabaab militants claimed responsibility for the attack on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi in retaliation of Kenya sending troops to Somalia to fight militants.

The NSG took the help of the FBI to piece together the relevant information for their database on such attacks. The FBI officials were present at the scene of attack from the first day to assist Kenyan authorities with investigation and prosecution.

According to NSG, between 2004-13, India witnessed 298 blasts and 1337 died in these explosions.

“After they refused to host us, we approached other agencies like the FBI to give us the relevant information. We collected the information and have made it part of our database now,” said the official.

The NSG had come under criticism after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks when a team had to be sent all the way from Delhi leading to delay in rescue operations. It sought to get a first-hand information from Kenyan authorities on how they flushed out militants and entered the mall in the first place.