Kenyan lawmakers are set to grill the country's top security officials about alleged intelligence failure over the September 21 Westgate shopping center attack in capital Nairobi in which Some 67 people were killed and many injured, media reports said on Monday.
Security officials, including the head of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) Michael Gichangi, have been summoned to appear before the parliamentary defense committee whose head Ndung'u Gethenji said "people need to know the exact lapses in the security system."
Five militants were killed by security forces during the four-day siege and ten others arrested. Somalia-based Islamist militant group al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for the attack which it said was in retaliation for Kenya's military involvement in their country.
Quoting security sources, BBC reported that the militants had hired a shop near the mall in the weeks leading up to the siege. Kenyan media said the NIS had warned a year ago of the presence of suspected al-Shabab militants in the capital and that they were planning suicide attacks, including on the Westgate shopping center.
According to the Daily Nation, briefings were given to the Ministers "informing them of the increasing threat of terrorism and of plans to launch simultaneous attacks in Nairobi and Mombasa in the second and last week of September.
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