Kenya's Westgate siege: 'Militants hired shop to hide arms

The militants who led the attack on a Kenyan
mall hired a shop there in the weeks leading
up to the siege, senior security sources have told the BBC.
This gave them access to service lifts at
Westgate enabling them to stockpile weapons
and ammunition.
Having pre-positioned weapons they were able
to re-arm quickly and repel the security
forces.
Sixty-seven people are known to have died in
the four-day siege. Kenya's Red Cross says 61 others are still missing.
Forensic experts are still combing the
complex, looking for bodies and clues.
The Somali Islamist group al-Shabab, which is part of al-Qaeda, says it was behind the attack and the following siege at the
upmarket mall in the Kenya capital, Nairobi.
Kenya is in its third day of official mourning for both the civilian and
military victims of theattack.
Fake IDs?
The BBC investigation has revealed how the Westgate gunmen were able to plan
and carry out the siege, and how security breaches allegedly fuelled by corruption made it an attack waiting to happen.
To rent a shop, the militants would have needed fake IDs supplied by
corrupt government officials.
The BBC has also confirmed more details about how they executed their attack.
Two vehicles dropped the Islamist extremists off outside before they forced
their way into the mall, sources say.
They are also believed to have set up a base using a ventilation shaft as a
hiding place, on the first floor.
Security sources have also confirmed a change of tack by the militants late on
Saturday.
They rolled out heavy calibre machine guns,
exploiting the moment when control of the security operation switched from the
police to the military.
There are reports that this witchover was fraught with confusion.
New photos revealing some of the damage at the Westgate shopping centre have been released.
They show how parts of the rooftop car park
have collapsed down onto what is believed to
be the supermarket area.
The manager of a jewellery shop allowed back
into Westgate showed the BBC photos she took, showing that the store had been looted.
President Uhuru Kenyatta declared three days
of official mourning this week. The funeral of his nephew and his nephew's fiancee took place in Nairobi on Friday.
Amongst the funerals held on Thursday was that of Mitul Shah at the Hindu Crematorium. A marketing executive, his firm was reportedly sponsoring the children's cooking competition taking place in the car park.
The heads of the various security agencies
have been summoned to appear before the
parliamentary defence committee on Monday,
amid rising concern over the authorities'
preparedness for such an attack.
The committee's chairman, Ndung'u Gethenji,
told the BBC that "people need to know the
exact lapses in the security system that
possibly allowed this event to take place".
He also said they needed to understand "the
anatomy of the entire rescue operation" amid
the allegations of confusion over who was in
charge.
It is still not clear how many militants took place in the attack or their nationalities.
But senior sources within al-Shabab, which has repeatedly threatened attacks on Kenyan soil if Nairobi did not pull its troops out of Somalia, told the BBC by phone that they would not release the attackers' names.
'Jewellery looted'
A senior government official told the
Associated Press news agency that the army had caused the collapse of a section of the mall on Monday.
The official, who did not want to be named, said autopsies would show
whether this had killed the hostages or whether they had already been murdered.
Correspondents say there have been reports that the military had blown out a
supporting column to bring the siege to an end - a controversial decision
which, if confirmed, would raise the possibility that hostages' lives were seen
as expendable.
Irene Anyango, manager of a Westgate jewellery shop, is one of the few people who
has been allowed into the mall following the end of the siege.
"It was a nightmare… and the shop was a totally different place," she told
the BBC.
Ms Anyango said 90% of the jewellery was
missing from the shop, which is now flooded.
"As far as we know, for the last couple of
days they were intact - we don't understand
what's happening but they're not there," she
said.
Many people not only face the trauma of losing family and colleagues but also the possibility of losing their jobs, she added.
On Friday morning, President Uhuru Kenyatta
attended the funeral of his nephew and his
nephew's fiancee at a church service Nairobi, where he addressed the congregation.
Mbugua Mwangi and Rosemary Wahito were among
those killed in the mall on Saturday.
About 4,000 Kenyan troops have been sent to
Somalia to help pro-government forces battle
al-Shabab.
The group is banned as a terrorist group by
both the US and the UK and is believed to have between 7,000 and 9,000 fighters.
Its members are fighting to create an Islamic state in Somalia.

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