It was the site of a mass killing and a national embarrassment. But when Westgate mall reopened here Saturday morning, shoppers and politicians poured through the security scanner into the glittering, light-filled interior in a rare moment of hope and closure.
Ben Mulwa, 34, a survivor of the September 2013 terrorist attack in the Kenyan capital that left at least 67 people dead, was among the first five to escape after hiding in a flower bed as four terrorists walked by him. Their calm, expressionless faces haunt him to this day.
He was one of the first to return Saturday, coming, he said, “to finish that business that brought me to Westgate mall,” a lunch meeting with a friend.