The news from Nairobi following the attack on Westgate Mall on Sept. 21 has been appalling. But given the frequency of attackers al-Shabab’s grenade-throwing in Nairobi, the incident should not have come as a surprise to regional experts. Yet, despite the magnitude of the death toll, the Kenyan government has shown a remarkable sangfroid, both in managing the crisis and taming the potential for ethnic flare-ups.
While investigations are still in progress, analysts and experts have choreographed the attack into different interpretations, but it seems to me that the focus has been misplaced.