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Westgate: Young widow’s tale of woe


Eunice Khavetsa is a devastated woman.

The Westgate terrorist attack has plunged her into early widowhood after her husband Morris Ombitsa was killed.

Mr Ombitsa was the head of security at the mall and among the first to be felled by the terrorists when they struck.

This was Mr Ombitsa’s fourth day at the mall after being transferred from Mombasa.

Nothing forthcoming

He had been shot eight times, a demonstration of the attackers’ cruel determination.

She spoke to journalists at MP Shah Hospital where she had confirmed the terrible news after a tiring search.

Khavetsa explained how panic set in as she listened to the radio relaying the mall raid live.

“After I heard everything, I called my husband but his phone was not going through so I decided to come to the hospital that Saturday clinging to the hope that he was still alive,” she said.

“I came back with my cousins on Sunday but there was nothing forthcoming. I decided to check the list of casualties brought to hospital. It was then that I was informed that he was among those that had died,” she said .

Anxiety at hospital

Andrew Ombitsa, a brother to the  deceased,  said it was the most trying moment for the family.

“We don’t know where to begin. He has left a young family, desperately in need of assistance,” he said.

The two were among scores of people camping outside MP Shah and Aga Khan Hospitals waiting anxiously for news of their kin.

Many of them said they had been visiting the two hospitals but they had not heard anything.

One man complained that he was being tossed from office to office.