Woman who survived Westgate and Dusit attack

Nairobi. Ms Tracy Wanjiru survived the Westgate terror attack five years ago when she was six months pregnant and again she made it out a live in the Tuesday DusitD2 complex

The last thing Ms Wanjiru expected when she went to work on Tuesday morning at the DusitD2 complex was that she would be caught up in another terror attack.

“I was working there when the attackers stormed in, it was not easy just like today. All I can say is that I thank God,” she said in an interview with the Nation.

Ms Wanjiru 28, a manager at a salon in the complex, narrated that a few minutes past 3pm on Tuesday, she heard gunshots rent the air near where she worked. She tried to peep outside and the next thing she heard was a loud explosion.

The explosion, she says, was so forceful that she was for a couple of minutes taken away from reality.

“I jumped back to the salon, told my colleagues to be keen because we were under attack. They dismissed me at first but when they heard wails and screams, everyone went into hiding,” she narrated.

Unlike in the Westgate attack, where she was located far away from the attackers, Ms Wanjiru said she was close to the Riverside attackers and relied on her previous experience to save herself.

After the explosion she saw “human body parts in the midst of fire flames flying in the air.”

It is from her hiding place inside the salon that Ms Wanjiru used her Westgate attack experience to call for help through social media.

“Someone help us out stack there is a bomb at 14riverside drive…..please. Call police,” she first posted, as her friends tried to help.

Standing separately about 200 meters from the D2 complex together with the battery of journalists *Innocent Mutiso and his colleague *Washing Otieno-not their real names wonder when they will return to work at the DusitD2 Hotel.

The two were initially hesitant to talk to the media and promised to open up only after assurance that their real identity will not be revealed.

“The garden where was indiscriminate shooting was horrible, those people are beasts and have no mercy at all. It will take a long time for me to get over it,” Mr Mutiso narrated to the Nation.

“It is by God’s grave that I am still alive today and able to share what happened,” he added.

His colleague Otieno said he was just about to serve a client at the restaurant when he heard several gunshots and took cover in the toilet together with other people.

A Senegalese national, Mr Mamadou Dia, was counting his stars after a miraculous escape.

Mr Dia, a communication consultant for a Qatari company, had arrived in the country on January 5 was booked at the Dusit D2 Hotel for a nine day stay which was to end yesterday.

“I had just finished my lunch at the Secret Garden Restaurant and was walking back to my room at the Hotel,” he recounted yesterday, explaining his lucky escape from the jaws of death.

“The first blast went off just as I stepped at the door of the Hotel followed by rapid gunfire and then total confusion,” he told the Nation yesterday, saying that he had witnessed one of the waiters at the Restaurant being shot

Sensing danger, his first instinct was to dash into his colleague’s room in the hope he will deliver what he thought was devastating news. “I reach there and he tells me he had heard the loud bang and knew that things were not okay,” he explained.

Back at the Hotel lobby they want to escape and join confusion of people who were running helter-skelter out of the place that was by now under aimless but intense fire.

The security of the Hotel was adamant that they wouldn’t leave as the situation was dangerous. At least 15 of the visitors at the hotel, mainly foreigners, and about two members of Hotel staff were taken to the first floor building from where they were hidden.

“I was to travel on Tuesday. I have rescheduled my travel to today (yesterday) but I doubt if I will make it because all my travelling documents and luggage remain at the Hotel. I only hope this operation will end so that I can get my travel documents.”

Mr Dia couldn’t tell the number of assailants. But he saw only of them. “He was a young guy, clean shaven and it would be difficult to even think that he was a terrorist.”

For Ezra Kimondo, it was business as usual as he reported to work early in the morning at around 8.30 am on Tuesday ready for his daily routine as the head of Customer Service at Brighter Monday at the fifth floor on Rosvena building.

Little did he know that this would not be one of those usual days he has had at work as what followed in a matter of hours has left a permanent emotional and psychological scar in his life.

He said that he went about assigning duties and tasks, and organizing the day’s workflow, went for lunch and had embarked on the second part of his duties in the afternoon at around 3pm when hell broke loose.

“There was calm before the incident. No one saw it coming but about 3.30pm we heard a blast, actually three bangs, and it was suddenly chaos and people were running in every directions as shots came from all over the place.

“The shots were particularly coming from the exit forcing us to come back to the building on the first floor where everyone scattered in their own directions,” added Mr Kimondo.

He recounted how after the gunfire became too much they resorted to text-based communication, use of WhatsApp and Twitter so as not to expose themselves to the attackers.

“The first person I texted was my father who told me basic stuff like to stay still until the cops came so as to ensure we are safe,” he recounted.

Eventually at about 3.20am on Wednesday, the security officers, who were moving floor by floor, reached them, identified themselves and then took them outside their hideout.

“There was no way of telling the identity of the attackers as there were gunshots all over and they were scattered all over,” he said.

In the case of Faith Chepchirchir, she had just gone for a visiting session at the building when the calm and peace at the place soon turned into wailing and cries for help.

She said that they first thought it was a bank being robbed as they did not know where the gunshots and explosions were coming from.

“We heard a bang from the next building from where we were and I could not tell where it came from. It sounded like ten tyres bursting at the same time. There was a lot of confusion as everyone tried to run towards the gate but eventually came back,” said Ms Chepchirchir.

She narrated how they quickly closed the doors as the terrorists made their way to the top floor and started spraying bullets.

“We were hiding under the desk and chairs before the police arrived. At first we did not know it was them. When we heard their footsteps we still did not believe them and they had to identify themselves for us to feel safe,” she said.

Dickson Onyango, NTV cameraman, and Sylas Apollo, NTV reporter, also part of some of the first survivors to emerge from the building as they recounted the harrowing tales for the 12 hours they were under hostage.

Mr Apollo recounted how a normal interview with some of the members of the Commission for Revenue Allocation (CRA) at their Grosvenor Suite offices in Riverside soon turned into an ordeal that he would quickly want to forget.

He said that after the ambush by the suspected terrorists, they were forced to cram in a toilet on the second floor of the building with several others awaiting rescue.

The NTV crew was part of the at least 50 other survivors who made their way out of the building at about 4am after being rescued from the first floor of the office block.

The reporter, who was visibly shaken by the ordeal, described the experience as horrific and the worst one he has ever experienced in his lifetime.

He said that together with at least 15 others trapped with him, they had to change positions moving from the toilets — sometimes crawling, lying on the floor or standing — to the main hall as they got wary of the movement in the building.

“We could hear the exchanges between the attackers and security officers from our hideout and it was an experience you would not want to go through ever again,” said Mr Apollo, who had been in the building for more than 15 hours since they had arrived at the scene earlier in the day for an assignment.

On his part, Mr Onyango, who did not want to speak about the horrendous experience, said that it was like knowing that you will die but not knowing the exact time.

“We knew that we will die but the wait for it to happen was just the worst experience I have ever had in my life. When I saw the security officers, I was relieved,” he said.

For Victor Bwire, also working with Brighter Monday, he said he saw two guys enter Dusit Hotel at around 3.20pm on Tuesday. They were in civilian and had guns with them. One of them was slim but the other one was well-built.

He said that at first he thought they were police officers but then they started shooting at people immediately they entered the building and that is when he realized that the individuals were not security officers.

“Suddenly we heard a blast that caused confusion as the employees started moving helter skelter. Over 100 employees of our company rushed to hide at the toilet, some under the tables and chairs,” he recounted.

Bwire said that the terrorists started shooting at their hideout at around 12am and even went ahead as throwing a hand grenade at them which missed them by a whisker as it luckily hit a wall.

“At that moment I saw a total blackout. I just prayed hoping that all will be well. The experience was horrible. At times we would feel pressed and would cram at the toilet. That was the worst experience ever in my life,” said Bwire.

The survivors were part of the over 50 individuals who had been rescued by Wednesday 4am by security officers and successfully reunited with their families.

(Reports by Samwel Owino, Collins Omulo, Nyaboga Kiage and Ibrahim Oruko of NMG)