Traders still hoping to be paid for losses

It is exactly one year since the terror attack on Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi. Those who ran businesses at the mall have kept the hope alive that they would be compensated for the massive losses they incurred during the attack.

Their hope is hinged on a recommendation by a committee on business recovery chaired by Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero. A number of them have expressed frustration that nothing seems to be happening even after making their submissions to the committee detailing the extent of losses they incurred.

“My hope for compensation or at least some money to get me on my feet again has vanished; no one seems to care any more,” Ms Joyce Maina, who operated a beauty shop, says. It has been an agonising one year that has also seen some traders close shop as all their stock and capital went down the drain.

Part of the mandate of the committee was to engage with the insurance industry to consider, on a goodwill basis, how to assist businesses that did not have terror cover before the Westgate attack and prepare a report to facilitate an integrated recovery strategy.

Many of the business operators at the mall have since defaulted on repayment of the loans they had taken from various banks.