As the Kenyan security forces battle to rescue hostages and liberate the besieged Westgate shopping mall, Nairobi, it is imperative to compare previous similar circumstances to determine the chances of success.
Kenya’s record against hijackings and kidnappings is fairly good. In 1996, special commandos from the General Service Unit (GSU) ended a hostage crisis at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport JKIA.
They killed Ethiopian hijackers that had taken hostage an Ethiopian Airlines jet as it flew from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, demanding political asylum overseas.
Smooth operation
The commandos slew the hijackers and freed the hostages without losing any security officer.
This was repeated when a special police squad successfully, tracked and stormed a building outside Nairobi to free kidnapped businessman Abdulkarim Popat.
The kidnappers were captured alive. It is important to note that many of these past cases were smaller compared to the current hostage crisis. But sources within Kenyan security operatives indicate that the GSU and other security arms have advanced and developed capabilities to match crises of this magnitude.
The Kenya Defence Forces ( KDF) in particular boasts of the so called Rangers Strike Force, a group of special forces that proved its skills during KDF’s efforts against Al Shabaab especially in Afmadow and the capture of Somalia. The rangers are said to possess skills to fight and intercept unconventional fighters including kidnappers. Part of their duty is to rescue hostages including their own soldiers captured or lost in war. The current hostage crisis is not unprecedented.
As a matter of fact, a similar hostage crisis occurred in Zamboanga in Philipines when hundreds of hostages were captured by islamist rebels. It also occurred in Lima Peru in 1996 when Tupac Amaru rebels stormed the residence of the Japanese ambassador and took him and hundreds of guests hostage for close to a year.
The crisis ended with minimal deaths but with all kidnappers killed when Peruvian special forces inserted special cables through the building’s water system to track the kidnappers communication. No doubt the Kenyan planners will strive to play psychological games with the kidnappers to taste their will, deploy special capabilities to eavesdrop on their communication or command structure or track their location within the building. They may also check for booby traps but will also be mindful that any tactics used to rescue hostages does not lead to their deaths.
It is most likely that the Kenyans have consulted with foreign governments and agencies with long experience against this kind of kidnappers.
A decade ago, Russians were confronted by a similar crisis when Chechen fighters held hostage hundreds of residents in a theatre. The seizure of the crowded Dubrovka theatre in 2002 by some 40 to 50 armed Chechens, who took 850 hostages, was dealt with in a spectacular manner.
Deadly gas
After two and a half days, Russian forces pumped an unknown chemical agent, (thought to be naloxone) into the building to knock out all people in the theatre. As a result, all the attackers were killed. About 130 hostages died due to reactions to the gas.
However, this intervention was widely viewed as a success. It was not clear whether any rebel was captured alive. On the other hand, in 2002, a group of Islamist separatist militants from Dagestan, Ingushetia and Chechnya occupied a school in Belsan Russia. The hostages who numbered 1,100, including 777 children were put at great risk on the third day of the siege when Russian security forces stormed the building with use of tanks and incendiary rockets as well as other heavy weapons. As a result, 334 hostages were killed including 186 children with more people injured and reportedly missing.
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