Abdul Haji Westgate’s Alternative Hero - a podcast by ALC Pan-African Radio

On the day of the attack, Abdul Haji, a Nairobi based businessman received a distress message from his brother saying that he was at Westgate Mall where what he described as a terror attack was underway. Abdul drove to Westgate mall intending to try save his brother.
At the mall, Abdul found a group of licensed civilian gun holders and police officers involved in rescue efforts. Armed with just a single handgun and a clip full of ammunition, he provided cover to the Kenya Red Cross personnel rescuing the wounded as he looked for his brother.
Effective government response during the crisis was affected by poor communication and coordination by government agencies, inadequate special forces personnel and equipment, round the clock media coverage where unverified information was shared and al Shabaab’s use of social media to sneer Kenyans and threaten more violence. As such, people who put their lives on the line to rescue victims were regarded as heroes.
Leadership is the process through which individuals or groups are influenced to behave in a certain way to achieve shared goals. Haji’s desire to save his brother aligned with the interests of the Red Cross and police involved in the rescue efforts. This merging of interests is known as mutuality. Leaders can only influence others through the merging of interests from the leader and followers.
The kind of leadership shown here is situational leadership where leaders arise because of a specific reason or context. In Haji’s case, his initial intention of rescuing his brother was extended to helping others.
Abdul emerged as a leader because he had useful skills needed to lead to safety.
Also, being armed and able to use a firearm made people to trust him because he could protect them. Abdul’s father had been the Minister for Security and he had taught his children how to handle guns for their personal security.
Abdul’s story resonated with many Kenyans who had been overcome by fear as he showed courage and commitment to transform the situation. His efforts helped victims trapped in the complex and the rescue workers who needed cover to fulfil their duties. Besides, Abdul continued to help with rescue efforts despite knowing that his brother had already been rescued. This made him a likeable individual. Leadership scholars would classify this likeability under referent power which refers to the capability of an individual to be liked by others because they can relate with them.

Rescuing people reduced the number of those killed in the attack. Abdul’s actions echoed the president’s statement that said that despite the attack, Kenyans remained resilient and as bold as the lions on the country’s coat of arms.
Abdul’s identity as a Muslim and a Somali leading rescue effort was an act of defiance and contrary to al Shabaab’s ideology that pits Muslims and non-Muslims. His actions demonstrated that al Shabaab militants are violent individuals who seek political goals for themselves through targeting/ or threatening to target everyone who opposes their violent
Although the crisis was one of the worst recent attacks for the country, Kenyan society has been better off in its aftermath because many measures were put in place to improve the government’s response. For instance, the National Counter Terrorism Centre was restructured for multiagency cooperation; there was increased training of media personnel on how to report terror-related incidents; security personnel continue to received more training on rescue operations and there is increased community- government cooperation through community policing. Additionally, many licensed gun owners now help with rescue efforts.

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