President Uhuru Kenyatta and Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph ole Lenku initially said 10 to 15 heavily armed attackers were at Westgate with one thought to be British terrorist Samantha Lewthwaite.

Reports on September 21 also alleged one of the gunmen had been arrested but died in hospital. And after the siege, Mr Lenku said five terrorists had died. But CCTV footage obtained by Sunday Nation days later — and subsequent leaked clips — showed only four attackers armed with AK-47 rifles.

The authorities have never explained the inconsistencies.

Who was responsible for the bungled security operation?

Yesterday we mourned the dead and celebrated the heroes.
Today we condemn the men who slept on the job. Step forward Gen Julius Karangi and Mr David Kimaiyo.
We hope by now Kenya’s leadership has had a chance to watch the documentary that chronicles the terror visited upon innocent civilians at the Westgate Mall.
The footage and the accounts of the survivors are a tale of a nation without a security system. A helpless people at the mercy of unfeeling killers.
Minutes after the terrorists struck, the security chiefs told Kenyans that the situation was under control, and that elite forces had been deployed to rescue people trapped inside and contain terrorists.
For four hours, the public was fed on intermittent messages of hope and heroism by our forces.
Then comes this video and survivors’ accounts and it emerges that Kenyans were lied to. By the time the security forces entered the mall, the last civilian had been killed.

Soldiers were clearly unsuited for this battle. They were trained, but not for hostage rescue situations. The footage shows them going in and shooting aimlessly at anything that moved.
It is public knowledge that the 3,500 square foot mall was covered by more than 100 cameras, and that live footage was available to both the police and military at a remote site in Hurlingham.
In the light of this, the decision to deploy the military made no sense. And the delay in the deployment of the GSU Recce Company tactical team which was assembled at Westgate was an act of utter incompetence.
The fact is that by the time the GSU entered Westgate, the massacre was over. Al-Shabaab had accomplished its evil mission.
These acts call for accountability. And the honourable thing is for Kimaiyo and Karangi to step down to close this sordid chapter in our traumatised life as a country.