The full “forensic audit” of the Nairobi shopping mall terror attack will take at least seven days to complete, the country’s interior minister has said.
International experts – including a team from Scotland Yard – are helping the Kenyan authorities as they seek to establish the identities of the militants who carried out the bloody, four-day assault.
Interior minister Joseph Ole Lenku said it was still not known whether there were any Britons or Americans among the al Qaida-linked militants or whether any of them was a woman.
“In our previous briefings we indicated that there was no indication to suggest that there is a woman terrorist but going forward we are all hearing possibilities and information – including volunteers from the public,” he told reporters. “We want to again request you to allow the forensic experts to determine whether that is true.”
The persistent suggestion that a woman was involved has led to speculation that it could be the British terrorist suspect Samantha Lewthwaite – who was married to the July 7 bomber Jermaine Lindsay.
Mr Lenku said the forensic teams were examining fingerprint, DNA and ballistics evidence in the hunt for clues.
President Uhuru Kenyatta earlier declared that the Islamist militants from the Somali-based al Shabab group who carried out the attack had been “defeated” as he announced three days of national mourning.
The Kenyan authorities have said that 61 civilians – six of them British – and six members of the Kenyan security forces were known to have died during the stand-off. Five terrorists were also killed while 10 suspects remain in custody in relation to the incident.
A Cambridge graduate who lost his wife in the attack said he was “devastated and heartbroken by the sudden loss.”
Briton Niall Saville, an economic development consultant from Lincolnshire, was shot in the shoulder during the siege.
His wife Moon Hee Kang died after suffering grenade wounds in the attack.