Abdul Haji’s mission to rescue brother blessing for Westgate hostages

Abdul Haji, 38, was in a meeting at Yaya Centre when he received an SMS from his elder brother.

“Stuck in Westgate. I think it’s a terrorist attack. Pray for me,” it read.

It was a moment he had been dreading for two weeks after a local television station exposed his brother, an undercover counter-terrorism officer, in an investigative programme.

Since then, the family of Senator Yusuf Haji has been receiving threats and warnings from people believed to represent the Somali-based Al-Shabaab Islamist group.

Mr Haji quickly excused himself from the meeting and dashed to Westgate. It was almost 1pm on Saturday, September 21.

Al-Shabaab gunmen had stormed the mall a few minutes earlier and started shooting indiscriminately.

Mr Haji, a businessman and a father of four daughters, believed the feared attack had come.

“My instinct was that they had come for my brother and that they would later come for the whole family,” he told Daily Nation Wednesday. “I was motivated to go in and fight to save my brother and my family.”

A licensed gun holder and gun enthusiast, Mr Haji was introduced to guns by his father, the Garissa senator who is also a former defence minister and long-serving provincial administrator.

He grew up shooting at the Athi River range and describes himself as “very good with pistols”.



He had packed an SSK heavy blaster pistol with 14 rounds of ammunition. When he arrived at Westgate, sounds of gunfire and screams could be heard.

He teamed up with a vigilante group of about 10 people from Parklands neighbourhood who had pistols, two-way radios and bulletproof vests.

They then saw movements in the mall basement parking. Many people had been shot inside or outside their cars. Some were still alive.

“We must go in there and see if we can rescue some people,” Abbas Gullet of the Kenyan Red Cross said.

With some of the vigilantes offering cover, they crept into the basement and pulled out bodies and some injured people.

Then, together with two plainclothes policemen, they headed to the rooftop via the ramp using the wall for cover.

They ran into a scene straight from hell.

"I have seen bodies but I have never seen so many bodies of children and helpless women,” Mr Haji said. “It was a massacre.”

The people at the rooftop had been attending a children’s cooking competition. The floor was covered in blood, cooking oil and food. There was no gunman in sight.



Covering the entrance to the mall against attack, they summoned the Red Cross team to take away the dead and the injured.

It was now close to an hour since the shootings had started and the anti-terror unit had not yet arrived.

Mr Haji’s unarmed brother was hiding in a first floor toilet.

Mr Haji, another man and three policemen, one of them armed with an Ak-47 rifle, entered the mall and rescued some terrified people hiding in Java Restaurant.

Using the staircase, they crept down to the second floor, rescuing people as they went along, before reaching the first floor where they could hear gunshots.

The assailants were waiting for them at the entrance to Nakumatt and let off a volley of heavy gunfire. The plainclothes policeman with the Ak-47 was shot in the stomach. He hid behind a pillar and was later dragged outside over the Art Café railing.

Mr Haji caught a glimpse of two attackers. One of them taunted them in Kiswahili to come closer if they dared. Realising that there were two women and three children hiding behind a flimsy table in the line of fire, Mr Haji and his colleagues skirted around instead.

They went from shop by shop rescuing hidden people, some of them playing dead, until they came close to the Nakumatt entrance.

Police officers lobbed teargas towards the attackers in Nakumatt and used the lull to rescue the women and children.

The women were reluctant to risk the dash across the line of fire but Mr Haji told them to carry one child each and beckoned the older girl to run across. A widely circulated picture of the girl running towards Mr Haji is a portrait in trust and bravery.

It was now almost 6pm and KDF soldiers and tactical team officers started sweeping across the first floor. Mr Haji and his team of civilians retraced their steps to the second floor.

Here, they found more people hiding in the Burger Place restaurant. Many had been shot and some were dead.

At Barclays, they found customers hiding in the banking hall. The bank staff and managers had locked themselves in the vault. Mr Haji and his team rescued them too.

They also rescued “about 40 people” who had crammed into the tiny mall management office and were beginning to suffocate.

“There was a wave of heat when we opened the door,” Mr Haji said yesterday. After rescuing more people from the CCTV control room, he headed back to the top of the mall.

It was then that he learnt the teargas had helped his brother and others escape from the first floor. It was also when the enormity of it all hit him.

“The magnitude of it hit me when I got out. I had been operating on adrenaline and survival instinct,” he said. “Then I realised that what had happened was a terrible thing.”

Mr Haji has been having nightmares since Saturday. His wife tells him he weeps in his sleep and Wednesday was the first time he went to work.

“I am angry at what I saw, what those people did, and the claim that they did it in the name of Islam,” he said yesterday, insisting on being interviewed in a public place in what he said was a sign of defiance to terror. “I am a Kenyan-Somali and I am Muslim; Islam does not advocate violence. They are doing the opposite of what Islam teaches,” he said.

He, however, is a reluctant hero. “I don’t feel like a hero at all. That girl who ran towards me is brave. That’s bravery. I don’t think I was that brave at her age but if I could save lives, I could do it again.”

Source: http://mobile.nation.co.ke/News/How-Abdul-Haji-rescued-Westgate-hostages/-/1950946/2007316/-/format/xhtml/-/q4vx75/-/index.html

BY NJERI RUGENE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r1kECr-4X0

A Muslim Somali man saved many lives.

I am not a Muslim, but this great story shows that bravery and heroism is stronger than religious and ethnic hatred.

Tell me something.. *claps hand and places under my jaw*

He should not only be careful but need to go undercover for now.


Last Note: Kudos.

too long naa

Not all Muslims are terrorist
We need more of that

He shld b careful o......'Dey' may com afta him

If he is being hailed for saving many people in the incident then its fine and i join others in doing so. However, if the are hailing because he is a kenyan-somali muslim, then that is prejudice and stigmatization

the truth is always blank and cant be hidden.

Man reminds me of Jack bauer and those two actors in white house down and olympus has fallen. God used him,100thumbs to him.

Niceone....message that islam is peace and not war.

Ochillary: too long naa

Kenyan Somali man got a txt message from his brother. The message said: "Stuck in Westgate. I think it’s a terrorist attack. Pray for me.”

He grabbed a gun, and went to the mall to rescue his brother. He got to the mall before most of the police, and saved over a hundred people.

He got into firefights with the terrorists. Saved children. Saw death and destruction.

Teamed up with medical professionals and led them to people that needed help.

The guy is a superhero. Look at him in the pics above. That man does not play o!

Oh, and he eventually found his brother and rescued him.

You should really read it!

In my head, I imagine Abdul looked like the pic below after he got the SMS from his brother. Just replace "Boko Haram" with "Al-Shabaab".

The world we live in today will for ever be greatful..#indeed a hero...

end time tinz,... Nice one

Good of him. We have sensible muslims.

..lol new jack bauer

I need to be a licensed gun-holder like this brother so I can do the same incase there's a scene where Shekau want to likewise here.

What happened in Kenya was really sad and pathetic, may Allah bless him for his bravery

Mr Haji, Good bless your heart.

some r good some r bad. life goes on

NIGERIA POLICE WE ARREST THE PERSON OOO

Must de world knw he is a muslim?

If they were all like him...

Been waiting for this guys story,turns out he's no law enforcement officer just a regular guy good with guns,running on adrenaline and love for family and compassion for fellow men.That's bravery,courage under fire for hours against enemies with superior firepower,this is everything a brother,father and patroit should be.We will all do well to learn a thing or two from him

Unfortunately this may expose him to more threats from the terrorists,those of us who trust God should please pray for him and his family,also hoping the kenyan goverment will deem it wise to offer him security if he stays on in the country.

Good for him but this propaganda won't bring back the dead nor will it launder the image of a religion whose penchance for violence is well known and documented.As i am typing this more muslims are still signinup to join these terrorist groups, I believe alshabab already knows what to
expect, now that they have clearly
defined how a legitimate target is
chosen ! shooting a toddler in the legs
because they are non-moslem is
numbing, yes numbing to the ISLAMIC terrorist
themselves because it closes them out of
'human' humanity and opens the
floodgates of hell like responses that will
not relent until every one of them is
dead! what a way to live? knowing that
even stones and trees have marked you
for death, your heroic but meaningless
posturing notwithstanding! The greater
pain and shame though is reserved for
their apologists. Shame on its Followers.

He was great on that day. Kudos to him.

Kenya salutes you Abdul Haji. May God's watch over you be endless.May you not die prematurely,but live to declare the works of the Lord.