Mzee Haji Yassin Jama was lost for words yesterday as he recounted the last moments of his son and best friend who were killed in the Tuesday attack at DusitD2 hotel in Nairobi.

Abdalla Yassin and Feizul Ahmed were having a late lunch at the upmarket hotel when terrorists struck. Abdalla’s brother-in-law Mahamoud Yassin was in his third floor office at the Dusit complex.

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He was among the few survivors who managed to escape by running down a narrow corridor in the building and managed to reach an exit amid hails of bullets.

Mahamoud had spent time with his brothers over lunch before he left. Little did he know that it was their last meeting.

Both Abdalla and Feizul were killed by the terrorists’ bullets. Feizul had been married for just a week.

“I have woken up to terrible news. It is bad luck for us Kenyans because we are always followed by terrorists. I have lost two sons,” Jama said in a deep shaky voice of a grieving father.

He called for calm saying terror had no race, tribe or colour. He said;

It is sad that some people see Muslims are terrorists yet we’re also victims of terrorists. I’m supposed to bury these young men today and Kenyans should know that I’m not a terrorist. Islam does not condone terrorism.

Jama asked KDF to pursue al Shabaab right into their hideouts in Somalia and kill them. He said;

We should not wait for them to come all the way from Somalia into the heart of Nairobi to kill people. 

Habil could not hold back tears as he recounted the jovial moments he shared with brothers.

Yesterday evening, pathologists at the Chiromo mortuary were busy identifying the 15 bodies they had received.

Relatives said DNA analysis, finger print scans and postmortems were underway. At least eight bodies were released.

Having worked as a security personnel at the Dusit for four years, Zachary Omboga had risen through the ranks to become the commander of the security detail guarding the high-end hotel.

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He came eye-to-eye with terror at the hotel’s gate where he was shot dead. His brother-in-law Francis Magutu was still trying to come to terms with his death.

Another grieving Kenyan is Kenyatta University student Esylovians Meli. Meli lost her boyfriend in the attack. She claimed the 36-year-old man was Australian although the country’s embassy said it was not aware of its national killed in the attack.

Meli said the boyfriend jetted into the country on Sunday for his first African visit.

Having dated online for a year, Meli and her boyfriend were merry making on their first meet up but the joy was to cut short.

His stay at Dusit was informed by Meli’s advice thus changing his initial plan to stay at the Hemingways Hotel. Meli said;

We talked in the morning and he told me that he was planning to go for swimming as I attended classes. It was later in the evening when she would found a dozen missed calls that she sensed danger. The boyfriend could not be reached when she called back.

I learnt of his death today at 5am but I knew things were not okay after my classes when I found social media awash with an attack at his hotel,” Meli said at Chiromo mortuary.

She first went to Avenue hospital to check if her boyfriend had been injured before going to Chiromo mortuary.

Another victim was James Oduor. After visiting his mother over the New Year holiday, Oduor had laid resolutions to achieve in 2019.

His mother Margaret Aluoch recounted a warm hug and her son’s promise to visit this coming weekend. James was a marketer with LG electronic company and was set to celebrate his birthday yesterday.

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'He was an amazing son, he was a community mobiliser who could relate to both old and young people,' a broken Margret told the Star yesterday.

Credits: The Star