Westgate Mall Garners International Media Attention, A Few Months After It Was Reopened

“We are happy to be back… I am sure that Westgate will be buzzing again.” are the words of many Westagte shoppers who are slowly trickling into the mall after the tragic events of September 21st 2013

This week ‘CNN Marketplace Africa’ reports from the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, where in the wake of tragedy a new beginning is evolving. The once thriving business hub in Nairobi re-opened in July 2015 after a deadly attack in September 2013 which saw 67 people killed, forcing the centre to shut its doors for nearly two years.

Thiagarajan Ramamurthy, director of Nakumatt a high end supermarket which has a flagship store at Westgate Mall, tells the show: “We are very happy to be back in Westgate. It was a big loss when we lost this branch. Westgate was our flagship branch and was doing extremely well. More than ten percent of our shoppers was coming from this place.”

Ramamurthy explains to the programme: “People living in this area spend a lot of money – their spending power is very high, and they were all waiting for this mall to be back here. People are coming back and slowly… We’ve got more than about fifty percent are back into the mall within 45 days which is something phenomenal.”

As Ramamurthy explains, Westgate’s monetary contribution to Kenya is huge: “Westgate is at a strategic location. It was contributing more than about Sh12 billion overall – approximately on the net value basis. You look at five six years and you are talking about Sh56 billion in business.”

The mall has more than eighty shops and is located in the affluent neighbourhood of Westlands, a popular meeting place for Nairobi’s growing middle class. Economic analyst Aly Khan Satchu tells ‘Marketplace Africa’: “Westlands is the beating heart of Nairobi’s economy in many ways. Nairobi is between forty and forty five percent of Kenya’s economy, and Westlands is really a key component of that Nairobi economy. Probably a quarter of it if you measure as a whole.”

Beyond Westgate, shopping malls are big business in Kenya. Satchu tells ‘Marketplace Africa’: “I think it is interesting as it didn’t put off a lot of multinational investors. The events of Westgate did not stop the development of this mall economy.”

However it has been a struggle for some of Westgate’s former tenants who relocated to other malls, such as Eritas Jewelers, who plan to go back to Westgate. Owner El Alon tells the programme: “All our customers are the ones we have from Westgate. In Westgate we have all kinds of customers, the tourists for silver for gold, gemstones and everything, a lot of people passing by every day. It was very bad because we closed the business. We lost a lot of money.”

Some stores are already back at Westgate where business is slowly returning. Jane Nioki, the store manager at Converse tells the programme: “We used to sell a lot at Westgate. At the moment the traffic is not so huge like it was before but we hope with time everything will go back to normal. As a company we’re very confident.”

Ramamurthy is also optimistic, telling the programme: “We are happy to be back. In six months it will be back to normal. I think this will become the landmark and the most profitable location for us going forward. I am sure that Westgate will be buzzing again.”

It’s hoped that the new security measures in place may give customers the needed confidence to come back and