On April 15, 2013, shock hit me as I sat at work reading 140
unbelievable characters on Twitter. Tweets claiming that a bomb had gone off at
the finish line of the Boston Marathon were unbelievable. Immediately I
scrambled, were my friends OK? Who was in that area? What is the situation?
Information could not come quickly enough to my office across the river in
Cambridge.
On September 21, 2013, I was enjoying the largest rugby
tournament in Kenya just north of Nairobi, when I received a call informing me there
were gunshots near Westgate Mall in Westlands, Nairobi (.5 miles from the city
center). Not thinking too much of it, I pledged I would avoid that area and be
vigilant about my security the rest of the day. The rugby tournament turned out
to be an amazing event with over 45,000 Kenyans attending, mostly between the
ages of 18-35. It was lively, welcoming, and fun.
One my way back home, I was required to pass through
Westlands, the part of town where the attack was occurring. Besides minimal
traffic for a Saturday night, nothing seemed to be out of place. The bars two
miles away from Westlands seemed full judging by their parking lots. I wouldn’t
have suspected that a hostage situation with 30 plus dead (at the time) was
ongoing within walking distance.
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| Smoke rises from the Westgate Mall. Courtesy AP. |
Immediately, when getting home I realized the gravity of the
situation: the numbers of the dead, the hostage situation, the ongoing nature
of the conflict, and the possibility that someone I worked with or knew was in
the building. Westgate is one of the most popular malls in the city. The news
has not exaggerated its popularity. It’s probably the most well maintained shopping
center and has some of the best restaurants in town. It’s a classic place to go
for lunch during the week, perhaps because the restaurants would rival Europe
and the US. I found myself often having
a meeting over coffee at ArtCaffe or Java, and often found myself at the Sushi
restaurant Onami, which is one of my Somali colleague’s favorite places to go.
