Red Cross contradicts Lenku on missing mall victims

Gullet has also cast doubts on Lenku’s position that there are, “insignificant if any,” bodies of victims still trapped in the rubble of the Westgate mall/FELIX MAGARA

NAIROBI, Kenya, Sept 27 – Kenya Red Cross Secretary General Abbas Gullet has maintained that they have reports of 61 missing persons as Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph ole Lenku insisted that there are none.

Gullet has also cast doubts on Lenku’s position that there are, “insignificant if any,” bodies of victims still trapped in the rubble of the Westgate mall.

“When we went in the first few hours of that fateful Saturday, up in the car park which you’ve now seen in the newspaper part of it has caved in, what we found survivors but we also found lots of dead bodies so common sense will tell you respond to the survivors, get them out to safety, treat them, let them go to hospital you can get the bodies later.”

“And that’s what happened. So now we have bodies there, I don’t think they’re looking for any survivors. By miracle of God you could find but at the moment what needs to be dealt with is the threat of insecurity there and for them to do a thorough job there in terms of the forensics,” Gullet said on Friday.

Speaking just an hour before Gullet at the Westgate mall, Lenku had told journalists: “The position of government on the figures of the dead is still 67 of which we say 61 are civilians and six security officers. Whether there’s other information on other dead, please accept the official government position.”

“We have also read with concern information emerging from other points. We want to urge Kenyans that the position that we give here is a collective decision arising from the work we are doing at the Westgate mall,” he continued to say.

Gullet made his revelations as he outlined how they plan on spending the Sh102,331,349 donated by individual and corporate Kenyans through the zero-rated 848484 Safaricom M-PESA PayBill number.

At the event, Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore made it clear that the #WeAreOneFund will not be given to any individual but paid out to the hospitals involved in the rescue efforts directly with a Sh200,000 maximum allocation for every individual.

Gullet also made it clear that the funds will be audited independently by Deloitte Consulting on a pro-bono basis.

About The Author

OLIVE BURROWS

With a decade of storytelling under her belt, Olive Burrows has been with Capital FM for the last four years and perhaps most notably interviewed US President Barack Obama. Committed to asking the hard questions and telling the story in the most engaging way possible, she has also interviewed Melinda Gates, a UK Minister and severally had the opportunity to sit across from President Uhuru Kenyatta and address the pressing issues of the day. Other notables she has had occasion to seek answers from are UN Secretary General António Guterres and John Kerry in his time as US Secretary of State.

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