NAIROBI, Kenya — David Odhiambo was one of the blue-uniformed security guards tasked with protecting Nairobi’s Westgate Mall one year ago when four heavily armed terrorists attacked. The work David was paid to do – search purses and bags, mostly – earned him two bullets in the head, injuries that cost him his job.
creating more insecurity and putting lives of the people there in danger.”
David Odhiambo was the first Westgate victim taken to hospital. After surgery to remove the bullets from his head, he stayed there for two weeks and President Uhuru Kenyatta visited him. Five weeks after Kenya’s worst-ever terror attack, his employer, Securex, wanted their $190-a-month security guard back on the job, Odhiambo said.
“I felt I was not capable and they said if I felt I could not do the job I should resign and that’s what I did,” said Odhiambo, who now makes $3 a day selling charcoal. “This hip, I can’t stand for long, and even walking was a big problem. I saw that if they were forcing me to work then they didn’t care about me.”
When a guard dies in the line of duty, his family is given just over $900 as compensation, Andabwa said. That is the amount that Odhiambo was given when he left his job at Securex, he said.
Securex denied forcing Odhiambo back to work.
“We gave him his dues as stated by law. We did not force Mr. Odhiambo out of the company. We received a request from him to resign. We are very sorry about what happened at Westgate. It was beyond our control and we do not have any ill motives toward him,” said Brian Sagala, Corporate Liaison officer at Securex, a regional private security company.
Despite the danger, the long hours and the low pay, Kenyans clamor to get security guard jobs, Odhiambo said, because there are so few job opportunities available. It takes Odhiambo 10 days of selling charcoal to pay his children’s monthly school fees. So if the chance to work as a security guard comes around again, Odhiambo said he would take it.
“Yeah, I would do it to support these kids,” he said. “I have no other resources.”