Kenya Westgate missing drops to 39

The number of people unaccounted for after the Westgate shopping centre attack has gone down to 39 from 61, the Kenyan Red Cross says. The Kenyan Red Cross has said the number of missing in the Westgate shopping centre attack has gone down to 39 from an earlier figure of 61. Fourteen of the missing have been found alive and seven bodies were in the morgue, it said. The government has said 67 people were killed after al-Shabab militants stormed the Westgate centre in the capital, Nairobi, on 21 September.

MPs have started a probe into alleged intelligence failings over the attack. The Red Cross says some relatives were not updating them when they found people who had been reported as missing. A Red Cross tracing manager has told the BBC that "some were reports from people who could not get through to their relatives on the phone and thought they might have been at the mall". The organisation has been calling those who reported people missing for updates.

'Lapses'

Five militants were killed by the security forces during the four-day siege and 10 people have since been arrested, the authorities say.

Al-Shabab, a Somali Islamist group, said the attack was in retaliation for Kenya's military involvement in Somalia. Security sources have told the BBC that the militants rented a shop at Westgate in the weeks leading up to the siege.

Kenya's joint parliamentary defence and national security committees met briefly on Monday morning to begin their investigation into possible lapses in the country's security system.

They have now adjourned and plan to visit Westgate later on Monday. They will start calling people on Tuesday to testify before the joint committees. Committee head Ndung'u Gethenji had said the questioning of the security chiefs, including the head of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), Michael Gichangi, would begin on Monday.

He told the BBC last week that "people need to know the exact lapses in the security system that possibly allowed this event to take place".

He also said they needed to understand "the anatomy of the entire rescue operation" amid allegations of confusion over who was in charge.

Kenyan newspapers have reported that the NIS warned a year ago of the presence of suspected al-Shabab militants in the capital and that they were planning suicide attacks, including on the Westgate shopping centre.