Kabir Dhanji

Kabir Dhanji

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Westgate: A photographer’s story

Photographer Kabir Dhanji revisits the people he met inside Westgate Mall during the attack on September 21, 2013.

Published On 22 Sep 2014
<p>On September 25, 2013, Ambi Ghataure and his father, Gurdial Ghataure, adhere to the traditional Sikh customs and cremate Pablo Ghataure and Davinder Ghataure, at the Sikh crematorium in Nairobi, Kenya. Pablo was Ambi(***)s son and Gurdial(***)s grandson, and Davinder was Ambi(***)s mother and Gurdial(***)s wife. Pablo and his grandmother(***)s cremations are among the first funeral rites of the 67 dead to be laid to rest as the siege at Westgate officially enters its fifth day. The KDF claim that they had all but defeated the terrorists, but sporadic bursts of gunfire could still be heard echoing through Westgate and across the by then expanded scene.</p><p>Pablo and his grandmother had been at the cooking competition on the rooftop when the attack happened. It was believed that they were among the first fatalities. The family are still not entirely sure how everything happened.</p><p>The cremations were one of the most difficult parts of the story to photograph at that time. They are personal, and intimate, an ancient passage of rite in devastating circumstances. This was the fist time since the first day inside Westgate that I felt connected to the story again. All that had happened in the interim was a dictated course of action by the authorities in charge to mediate and stifle the flow of information and access to the truth and what was happening. The security cordon was moved further and further away from the building over the course of the three days. Some of the other photographers used long lenses to try to capture what little they could of what was happening outside. The focus then, during the siege, was on what had transpired inside Westgate, and how, and by whom - but none of those questions were ever fully answered, and it remains that way. The cremations defied everything the authorities had set about to do like withholding identities and information of people who were killed, and laid bare the horrific and harrowing tragedy that had unfolded. I will never forget words that my dad once said to me: (***)No father should ever have to bury his son.(***) I could not imagine anyone having to do that, and there was Ambi, cremating his son and his mother.</p>
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