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| Distraught: Father Louis Bawa (left) is seen with his nine-year-old daughter Jennah (right). She has been confirmed as one of the British victims in the Kenya terrorist attack, in which her mother also died |
Louis Bawa, 43, said his nine-year-old daughter Jennah and Kenyan-born wife Zahira, 41, were killed in Nairobi on Saturday by ‘animals’, who were using ‘religion as an excuse to kill people’.
The three-day siege appeared close to an end last night, when Kenyan police said they had regained control of the Westgate mall, hours after it emerged more than 60 people had been killed.
Prime Minister David Cameron said it seemed at least six of the dead were British after returning from a Balmoral break with the Queen to chair a meeting of the Cobra committee in Whitehall.
Mr Bawa, chief executive of a marketing company which counts Aston Martin Racing as its main client, told The Daily Telegraph: ‘The people who did this, they are vigilantes, they are animals.
‘At the end of the day they are using religion as an excuse to kill people. They're saying that they were targeting certain people, but they were targeting anyone. Zahira and Jennah were Muslims.
‘But these animals just shot them the same as all of the others. At first I was convinced that they would be OK. I had hope…. I just want some justice now to come to the animals that did this.’
Jennah's grandmother Shakuntna Bawa, 63, yesterday said that the family had been devastated by the tragedy in Kenya's capital city on Saturday, telling reporters: ‘We knew that they were missing.
‘But we heard yesterday that unfortunately they had been killed. I feel pretty shocked - the whole family is in shock. I can't say anything else at the moment. It's very sad - but what can we do?'
She added: ‘My sister saw Louis speaking on television and rang me. At that stage we still believed there was a chance Jennah and Zahira might be okay because there were a lot of people missing.
‘But the police have confirmed to Louis that his wife and daughter were killed. He tried to go down to the morgue to identify their bodies but there were guards there.
‘He was eventually let in after many hours and has now confirmed they died. I have not seen Jennah for five years ever since the family moved to Kenya, but she was beautiful.’
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